Shia Islam is the minority religion of the Middle East and Africa among those practicing Islam. About 10 to 20% are practicing shias.

The United States destroyed the 2 Sunni powers on either side of Iran making Iran much more powerful than it could ever have been on its own . Also ironically Iraq became a Shia country as it was always controlled previously by minority Sunnis

It took the United States just a few weeks to destroy Iraq which is something the Iranians could not do in eight years. So that shows you exactly how weak Iran used to be.

Now with intense Russian support Iran could very easily become the dominant power in the region .

Shia Islam has never been the dominant power within Islam so it should be interesting to see what happens if this comes to be .

I think that Saudi Arabia is already terrified .

Iran is going to go nuclear whether we like it or not . The only other powers in the region with nuclear capability are Pakistan and Israel. I guess you could include India as well but I think they're going to stay out of this fight .

if I were a pessimist I would say that a nuclear exchange in the region is inevitable . But I think that I will choose not to be a pessimist

 

I surprisingly agree with everything you're saying .

Islamic state is a Sunni creation .
It's probably a small part of a reaction to the rise of power in Shia Iran.

If you look at the maps Islamic state is very close to the Iranian border .

I'm just a little surprised that you have anything positive to say about President Reagan.

of course I believe that the conflict between the west and the near east has been going on since before Alexander the great .

Christianity and Islam is just the latest veneer.

If neither religion were ever created I believe this conflict would still be going on .

 

By appointing conservative, law in orderjudges, President Reagan changed the national approach to crime. During the liberal 1960's the prison population declined. The crime rate doubled. Since 1980 the prison population has tripled. The crime rate declined by one third.

An additional reason for the decline in the rate of violent crime since 1991 has been the rise in abortions. The same kind of females who are most likely to give birth to boys who become violent street criminals are most likely to have abortions. They have low IQ's. They are unmarried. They are marginally employable.

I worry about a Vassar student who aborts the result of an encounter with a Rhodes Scholar. They are not typical of females who have abortions.

In order to win the support of the religious right Reagan pretended to oppose abortion. He did nothing to actually reduce the incidence of abortions. When he was elected governor of California he signed a law legalizing abortion in that state.

Generally speaking I am liberal on economic and environmental issues, and conservative on social issues, especially criminal justice. I hate criminals and want them to suffer.

 

So Iran has launched a missile strike on Those who attacked. Iran reported many enemy casualties and equipment destruction. I wonder how they knew where the attackers would be?