[MMMMMM]

ACPlayer, the problem is far more than that "the mullahs are angry at us." The mullahs also wish to destroy Israel, who has never laid a hand on them; and they intend to rule the entire Middle East with their form of fanatical theocracy, if only they can somehow manage to accomplish it.

We need to tell them to cut the BS, and we need to carry a big stick and be ready to use it. And if they persist in their plans of acquiring nuclear wepons, we need to destroy all their facilities.

The problem ISN'T primarily what we have done in the past. The problem is the mullahs themselves, and their warped beliefs and intentions, and their actions towards implementations of their visions of pan-Middle-Eastern theocracy (to be led by them, of course). The problem is that they hate all infidels. The problem is that they are ideologically living in the 7th century--and that they are trying to forcibly impose 7th century values on the 21st century.

Western influence in the Middle East during the 1900s in some ways may have exacerbated the problems, but it is not the root cause of the problems. The root cause is the fanatics' hatred of non-Muslims, and their utterly totalitarian world views. And sadly it is those very views which have fostered political systems with stagnant economies and little hope of improvement, until they as a society someday begin embracing some Enlightenment type of thinking.