From: George Sherwood 

Phil Payne wrote:
>> "Now the Mussolini syndrome is at work over Iran. All the symptoms are
>> present, including tabulated lists of Iran's warships, despite the fact
>> that most are over 30 years old; of combat aircraft, many of which
>> (F-4s, Mirages, F-5s, F-14s) have not flown in years for lack of spare
>> parts; and of divisions and brigades that are so only in name. There are
>> awed descriptions of the Pasdaran revolutionary guards, inevitably
>> described as "elite," who do indeed strut around as if
they have won
>> many a war, but who have actually fought only one—against Iraq, which
>> they lost. As for Iran's claim to have defeated Israel by Hizbullah
>> proxy in last year's affray, the publicity was excellent but the
>> substance went the other way, with roughly 25 per cent of the
>> best-trained men dead, which explains the tomb-like silence and
>> immobility of the once rumbustious Hizbullah ever since the ceasefire."
>
> "From my lodgings in the Vatican ..." - the famous appraisal
of the state of
> the English fleet that helped convince Philip II.
>
> You will be as wrong about Iran as you were about Iraq - except now you're
> facing Persians.

What in the world does that have to do with the article?  Facing Persians
that make up only 51% of an Iran that is not nearly as united as you are
trying to say, but the point is just leave them alone.

George

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