<p>Barrons what does 9-11 and Bin laden have to do with blowback and iran? Are you telling me there is a connection between those two?</p>
<p>There are always connections. To compartmentalize each issue is to oversimplify.</p>
<p>Here is an interesting video of Ron Paul discussing blowback:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcQQ05XtAQ4[/url]”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcQQ05XtAQ4</a></p>
<p>The PKK in Turkey, according to the US govt. is a terrorist organization.</p>
<p>The PJAK, the Iranian version of the PKK (which has also killed a no. of Iranian soldiers and police), otoh is not labeled by the US govt. as a terrorist organization and according to some reports has received backing by the US govt. </p>
<p>No wonder people in the Middle East region roll their eyes when US leaders talk about democracy and freedom.</p>
<p>(Btw, this post is in no way any indication of support for the fundamentalist Islamic regime currently in power in Iran).</p>
<p>lol at “fundemental Islamic regime” . If Iran is a “fundemental Islamic regime” what is Saudi Arabia?</p>
<p>Here is Hitchens main point–the rights and wrongs of the last 50 or 100 years have nothing to do with why this segment of Islam will try to destroy anyone in their path to control of the expanded Middle East.</p>
<p>"To the Wahhabi-indoctrinated sectarians of Al Qaeda, only the purest and most fanatical are worthy of consideration. The teachings and published proclamations of this cult have initiated us to the idea that the tolerant, the open-minded, the apostate or the followers of different branches of The Faith are fit only for slaughter and contempt. And that’s before Christians and Jews, let alone atheists and secularists, have even been factored in. As before, the deed announces and exposes its “root cause.” The grievance and animosity predate even the Balfour Declaration, let alone the occupation of the West Bank. They predate the creation of Iraq as a state. The gates of Vienna would have had to fall to the Ottoman jihad before any balm could begin to be applied to these psychic wounds. And this is precisely, now, our problem. The Taliban and its surrogates are not content to immiserate their own societies in beggary and serfdom. They are condemned, and they deludedly believe that they are commanded, to spread the contagion and to visit hell upon the unrighteous. The very first step that we must take, therefore, is the acquisition of enough self-respect and self-confidence to say that we have met an enemy and that he is not us, but someone else. Someone with whom coexistence is, fortunately I think, not possible. (I say “fortunately” because I am also convinced that such coexistence is not desirable). "</p>