Weapons of Mass Cousinfuckin'

Here's a couple of cupcakes to toss on the Bake Sale of War Planning:
Iran is not run by madmen. This is particularly important to remember when they are busy cousinfuckin the Royal Navy. Right wing religious cousinfuckers with intimate relations with Al Qaeda and the Taliban, to be sure, but this is a rational if twisted regime with a functioning economy, court, and bureaucracy and some ability to respond to its people desires. It isn't backward the way Afghanistan is, not by a longshot, and it isn't demonic in the Sadaam/Kim Jong Il vein. Iran's overwhelming desire after 25 years is international respect; they seem to want a distant normalization with the West, whatever they say- a prospect made much less possible by W. They're not given to casual genocide; this should be obvious but it needs to be made clear. The nuclear program seems to be a way to continue to establish national legitimacy, power and deterrence (in this case with Israel), primarily for internal consumption, much like Pakistan. Put another way, they're not likely to nuke or invade anyone unless they are on the receiving end of national humiliation. And unlike Iraq, Iran did not seem to have strong extra-national interests in additional real estate.

An interesting example is the position of women, culturally oppressed but unlike much of the Mid east a critical part of the working and professional class. This is totally unlike Afghanistan, or even Saudi Arabia (where apparantly no one local is part of the working or professional class).