Furnish on Netanyahu, Nukes, and Iranian Eschatology

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I have just posted a guest post from Dr Tim Furnish on Zenpundit.

Dr Furnish holds a doctorate in Islamic history, and “wrote the book” — Holiest Wars — on the history of Mahdist movements. In this powerful and timely post he tackles the issue of Iran’s nuclear program.

Highly recommended.

7 thoughts on “Furnish on Netanyahu, Nukes, and Iranian Eschatology”

  1. Betting civilization on the opinion of one man who thinks the mullahs are rational is high risk. Their rhetoric has not been exactly rational for as long as I have listened to it, although I am certainly not an expert. There is also an argument that can be made, I believe, that resisting their ambitions might be as effective in bringing rational thought there as acquiescing.

    The present administration is nearly unique in American history in their resistance to debate on matters of grave import. Obamacare was rammed through on a technicality and has been propped up by a series of extralegal alterations that were not included in the law nor anticipated by its putative authors.

    The FCC has just taken over the Internet and refuses to reveal the 300 page decision.

    The IRS has engaged in repeated concealment and obfuscation of its attacks on opponent of the administration.

    Now we see a near meltdown over a speech opposing the policy that has not been explained.

    Maybe Netanyahu is wrong. Maybe he isn’t. Can we discuss this without hysterics ?

  2. They’re rational. They want nukes because nukes will be useful. They’re an expanding imperial power, avowed enemy of the USA and have killed many Americans over the years. I read Dr. Furnish as saying we shouldn’t exaggerate the threat, which is always good advice. Yet they remain a threat, and given our government’s complacency I don’t think alarmism is the main problem.

  3. Then there is another opinion.

    Iran is a state sponsor of terror and has been officially listed as such for more than 30 years. It has developed an extensive military-industrial complex, the Defense Industries Organization, which is capable of supplying all of its own military equipment, weapons and ammunition. With this capability, Iran has become the primary supplier of weapons to two other state sponsors of terror, Sudan and Syria, as well as the primary sponsor of other foreign terrorist organizations, including Hezbollah, Hamas and numerous Shiite militias in Iraq. With Iran’s help, Hezbollah has stockpiled about 60,000 surface-to-surface rockets in Lebanon while Hamas has stockpiled about 10,000 surface-to-surface rockets in Gaza, all for the stated purpose of wiping Israel off the face of the earth.

  4. When did Netanyahu ever say Iran was an apacolyptic power? In his AIPAC speech he described Iran as an expansionist power that will be more deadly with nuclear weapons.

  5. Iran is a state sponsor of terror even though unlike the United States, it has not prevaricated its way into destroying any non-Islamic or Islamic country (ies)
    in the recent past.
    Even though on the whole it did have to battle defensively against the US’s assisting its erstwhile friend, Saddam.

  6. Ahr asks:

    When did Netanyahu ever say Iran was an apacolyptic power?

    In an October 2013 interview with NBC, according to Haaretz [which Dr Furnish linked to].

  7. I’ll give you this – Iran has been smart in their expansion into the Middle East by using proxies such as the Allawis in Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Marsh Shias in Iraq, the Amal Party in Bahrain, and most recently the Houthis in Yemen. They basically bided their time until the power vacuum allowed them to rush in.

    It’s been sudden and they’ve hidden their intentions well. But then it’s in the Shia nature and actually codified to prevaricate.

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