Quote Originally Posted by Rob Thornton View Post
Hey Ski -

I sort of like the Iranian model - You've got a little bit of everything - a well trained, dedicated and fanatic para-military that can also inform on the people and slip across the border to destabilize neighbors, an investment in reasonably good conventional hardware you are getting on the cheap through the promise of providing fossil fuels, and you are developing nuclear weapons so anybody who screws with you must contend with that - oh and as an auxillary you support a powerful non-state terrorist group through a partner state who stymied what most westerners consider to be a first rate military power. These guys have clearly done their homework. Anybody looked at the Zagros mountains as a place to go rock climbing - that is ugly terrain- unless you are defending in them, or using them as a base of operation for an insugency.
Great observation. Be interesting to see if others (Chavez?) head in the same direction.