JERUSALEM — Iran could welcome a nuclear war with Israel or the United States. A leading U.S. scholar on the Middle East has asserted that Iran's leadership does not resemble the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Bernard Lewis, a professor at Princeton University, said the mullah regime in Teheran believes that the Shi'ite messiah would be ushered by a nuclear war, Middle East Newsline reported.
"It's not an Arab country, but rather a Muslim country, ruled now by a Muslim theocracy, which calculates its policies not by Iranian national interests, but by what is good for Islam," Lewis said.
"Iran's leadership comprises a group of extreme fanatical Muslims who believe that their messianic times have arrived," Lewis said. "This is quite dangerous.
Though Russia and the U.S. both had nuclear weapons, it was clear that they would never use them because of MAD — mutual assured destruction. Each side knew it would be destroyed if it would attack the other."
"But with these people in Iran, mutually assured destruction is not a deterrent factor, but rather an inducement," Lewis said. "They feel that they can hasten the final messianic process. This is an extremely dangerous situation of which it is important to be aware."
In an address to the Jerusalem Conference on Feb. 20, Lewis, a longtime consultant to the U.S. and other Western governments, said Iran was working to assemble a nuclear weapon. He said Teheran regards a nuclear weapon as in the interest of Islam.
"It is actively pursuing nuclear power. Even a non-nuclear Iran is dangerous for Israel, and it must be carefully watched."
Comment from a reader of the scholar's works.
It was a very disappointing experience - not that the books were poor by any means - but that it left one with the feeling that there is no possibility of reform in the Islamic world and that it’s just a matter of time before the train wreck happens.
It also brought to me the realization that borders and geopolitics are part of the western world - and have no meaning to a Muslim. Their alliance is with their God and that’s it. They are just incidentally residents/citizens of this subdivision or that.
Lewis has pointed out that Bin Laden and other Muslim fanatics have no appetite for politics or even administration - their goal is to achieve an Islamic world, not manage it.
Another Comment:
Let us NEVER lose sight of the fact that the reason that Iran:
is no longer a U.S. ally,
no longer a force for peace and stability in the Middle East,
no longer a relatively friendly neighbor of Israel,
is because Jimmy STP Carter
stabbed the Shah of Iran in the back,
called the Ayatollah Khomeini a ‘godly man’ and
helped to send Iran from the 20th all the way back to the 9th century, and
the blood of hundreds of thousands of people are on his hands.
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