Even without nuclear weapons, Iran has become the hegemonic power over the world’s richest oil region, thanks to the Bush administration’s elimination of the Sunni Wahhabi Talibans in Afghanistan and Saddam’s Sunni regime in Iraq.

On April 9, 2003, the U.S. won the battle against a tattered Iraq. But Iran, without firing a shot won the war for Iraq; a triumph for the Khomeini revolution, one of Shiism’s greatest moments since Saladin removed the Shii Fatimids in Cairo in 1171. The occupation of Iraq transferred control in Mesopotamia to Iraq’s 60% Shii majority, a cataclysmic event that turned Iran into an unstoppable regional powerhouse. The British think tank, Chatham House concluded in August 2006: “The greatest problem facing the U.S. is that Iran has superseded it as the most influential power in Iraq.”

To Sunnis, Shiis are heretics. In extremist Wahhabi Saudi Arabia, Shiis are discriminated against. The founder of the kingdom imposed on Shiis the tax he imposed on non-Muslims. Shii towns and villages today are pathetically poor despite being located at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil region. In Bahrain, the Sunni ruling minority discriminates against the Shii majority. In Iraq, until the U.S. occupation, the Shii majority was deprived. In Kuwait, Shiis, almost one-third of Kuwaitis, are second-class citizens. In Lebanon, Shiis, a third of the population, are underprivileged. In Syria, until seizing power in 1970, the Alawites, a Shii sect, lived in abject poverty under Sunni rule. In Yemen, the Zaydis, a Shii sect, are a third of Yemen’s twenty million people. Zaidis accuse the Sunni government of genocide.

The Arab Shiis look to Iran for deliverance; leverage in Tehran’s arsenal in dealing with Arab oil Sheikhdoms. Egyptian President Mubarak declared recently that Shiis in Arab states were more loyal to Iran than to their own countries.

As a minority of about 15% of Muslims today, Shiism draws Shiis together. In Southern Iraq, Najaf and Karbala, the burial places of Imams Ali and Hussein, are the holiest of holy Shii cities. Kazimayn, nearby, has the tombs of the Seventh and the Ninth Imams. Samarra has the tombs of the Tenth and the Eleventh Imams plus the revered Mosque of the Occultation, from where the Twelfth Imam allegedly disappeared (this mosque was blown up in the civil war on February 22, 2006 and again on June 13, 2007). In the cemeteries of these holy cities, many illustrious religious personalities from the world of Shiism are buried. In Iran, the Eighth Imam is buried in Mashhad, and in Qumm his sister is buried. Outside Damascus in Syria, Zainab, the Granddaughter of the Prophet and the sister of Hasan and Hussein, is buried. In commemorating the suffering of the Imams, pilgrimages pull millions of Shiis together. In the grand seminaries of Najaf, Karbala, Mashhad, and Qumm the best-known clerics teach. The prominent families of Najaf and Karbala trace their roots to long lines of marriages with the great families of Burjurid, Isfahan, Kirmanshah, Mashhad, and Qumm. Ayatollahs have cross-country followings. From Najaf and Karbala, Iranian clerics often led the Shii world. The so-called “historical ethnic enmity” between Arabs and Persians is an exaggeration. The conflict has always been between the rulers, not the Shii masses.

Washington needs today to deal with Iran as the major power in the world’s biggest oil region. GCC rulers in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and UAE are too feeble to challenge Iran. These men are non-representative dictators pre-occupied in outdoing each other on who owns the more ostentatious palace and who flies the bigger private Airbus or Boeing airplane.

Elie Elhadj; author: The Islamic Shield

http://www.universal-publishers.com/book.php?method=ISBN&book=1599424118

Also:

http://journals.aol.com/eeh100/daring-opinion/

You can stop this nonsense whenever you like. Nobody is forcing you to write this foolishness. But so long as you're so compelled, I'll continue to ridicule you for it:

The funny thing is that UC Irvine's views are indistinguishable from those here. And the folks here who most defend it seem genuinely outraged that anyone call them on it.

You made no mention of "UC Irvine's views." They are never once discussed in the quotation you provided. That's the first thing you need to realize.

What you quoted was the opinion of the Zionist Organization of America about UC Irvine. And a completely unsubstantiated opinion at that. While you mistake this opinion as perfectly unadulterated fact, those of us blessed with brains in our heads understand it to be simply a case of "he said."

Now that I've responded to all of your nonsense thus far, perhaps you'll do me the courtesy of answering just one question:

Please explain exactly why a desire to avoid war with a non-threatening country in a very volatile region is a clear expression of a desire to see all jews exterminated. Please be as detailed as you can, as I'm very curious to know how this works.

let me boil it down for you

"I didn't say all Jews should be exterminated but if I did, you're a fool for disagreeing with me."

Thanks for making my point. Cue the Band.

The hue and cry would reach all the way to Heaven, if it existed, which it doesn't. Thank the Lord Chomsky we're only talking about killing Jews. There there calm down. Maybe you guys are right, maybe if Jews just admitted they WERE rats they'd get some respect from you.

How has this thread has deteriorated into a Zionist thrash party? What happened here? If anyone suggests that perhaps war is not the answer to everything, at least preemptive war against Muslim-majority countries in the middle east, suddenly all manner of tripe suggesting anyone who disagrees with summary blood letting is anti-semitic and a Jew-killer. Give me a break!

This is particularly interesting where anonymous 01:38 cites recent Muslim harrassment of Jewish students at UC Irvine in Orange County, California, as evidence that a pogrom is about to start. One of the most interesting parts of that post concerns a statement on the part of the ZOA, which points out that violence has been done to Jewish icons and artifacts located, supposedly, on the UCI campus. This is wrapped around a statement from the Office of Civil Rights, which itself seems confounded by the situation as it says: "...some Muslim student activities were offensive to Jewish students." Well yes, if the activities mentioned (in bold) in the post really did happen, I would certainly think so!

Then:

"But the report concludes the speeches, marches and other activities were based on opposition to Israeli policies, not the national origin of Jewish students."

The national origin of Jewish students? Are all or even most of UCI's Jewish students Israeli-born? Or do these Jewish students consider themselves to be of Israeli origin and just unfortunate enough to have somehow magically hit the ground in the US as they were being born?

If in fact there have been proven acts of harrassment or worse aimed at Jewish students at UCI by Muslim students there (and there aren't a whole lot of either in south Orange County), then this atrocity ought to have been investigated by local law enforcement as well as the UC system. However, one of the prime movers behind the superficially annoying verbal protesters is not a Muslim but simply dresses as one while spreading verbal and written anti-semitic tripe on campus. And this was back in mid-June of this year. UCI has not exactly been a hotbed of anti-semitism.

Further, concerning this "pogrom" in the works, there is this to consider, quote from the June 10 issue of the Orange County Register:

"...UCI has achieved a blog-inspired reputation for anti-Semitism – a notoriety that many campus observers say is unfair and unwarranted.

"'A lot of the blogs distort facts and take things out of context,' said Alex Chazen, president of Hillel: The Jewish Student Union at UC Irvine. 'Many of the bloggers aren't on our campus and don't even know what's going on.'

"One of the most ardent bloggers and complainants about campus anti-Semitism, according to Dean of Students Sally Peterson, has not only already graduated from UCI but applied to and attended graduate school here."

I had followed the situation at UCI quite closely, in large part because I was familiar with the OC culture and my suspicions that much of the supposed anti-semitism going on there was the product of bored, bigoted or just plain simple-minded local goys. Well I'll be damned! And of course the ZOA latches on to this, beats the horse til it is dead, and then it gets brought up here on Salon as though it is a regular kristalnacht about to explode.

I know the Muslim community in Orange County, where I lived for nearly five years. I know the Jewish community there too. It isn't too hard when the greater OC community is goy - blond and blue-eyed mostly. So I know how the various mindsets work there.

Consequently, as far as anonymous 01:38's post is concerned, I would call alarmism at best -- and bullshit at worst. Not to mention it has very little to do with whether or not the US ought to go kill some Iranians in order to make a few Zionist extremists feel better. No, I don't think this is a good argument. Try something else, please.