In the battle against terrorism both Iran and Syria are sponsors. Why? What's the History?

Question

Radicalism began in the 20th Century. What caused it?

Iran is a theocratic, militant Islamic state and Syria is a secular nationalist state. They both sponsor terrorism.

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it!

Recent History of the Middle East Parts 1 and 2 expllain this. It's a brief history of the 20th Century focused on the events which led up to current day Iraq and our challenges there:

War on Terror Blog http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-DfkctJU7dK5B7LcNROoyVQ--?cq=1

No politics. Just the groundtruth from one that has been to both fronts in the War on Terror.

I'll be around to tomorrow to respond to your answers before choosing.

Coragryph: What planet are you living on?
Or do you mean by pre-2004, actually pre-1979?
If Saudi Arabia is a state sponsor of Al-Qaeda, why is Al-Qaeda attacking them so much? and so much more post 9/11?
(see my previous article on statistics)

You didn't even read my article to see what my premises were. You should have and then instead of defending Iran and their islamicist theocracy, you might be demanding that your politicians take on the cause of National Security rather raw politics.

That is the worst argument I've seen you make but I've come to expect you to form reasonable answers, even if wrong or devoid of significant parts of your true beliefs to get a 'best answer.'

Answer 1

Political Correctness is the Incubator of Islamism
by Amil Imani

14 Feb, 2007

Time and again we are told by the politically correct “experts” not to worry about Islam posing a threat to our way of life. We are repeatedly lectured that only a very small minority of Muslims are troublemakers who are giving the peaceful masses of Muslims a bad name. We are also informed that the terrorists, who happened to be Muslims, are the disaffected and the young. And not to worry, since as the fire of youth turns to ashes of old age the rebellious will mellow, as they always have.
With heavy assurances like this, coming from so many know-it-all authoritative figures, we can sleep soundly without the aid of sleeping pills. After all, people reason that these pundits are “experts” whose job is to know and tell it like it is. Those who voice contrary views must be a bunch of racist, alarmist hate mongers. Who is right?

Wouldn’t be more prudent to let the facts settle the matter, rather than blindly accepting either position? Of course it would, except for one huge problem. In the face of threats, people tend to go to the mind’s medicine cabinet and take a few denial and rationalization pills, in the same way that it is the aspirin bottle they turn to when a headache strikes. Why not? We are the Easy Species. We love effortless, quick and simple solutions. And that’s not invariably bad. It has given us all kinds of labor and time saving devices.

Yet, the Islam problem is very real and deadly. Neither the pronouncements of the experts, nor the tranquilizing pills of the mind can make it go away. It is here and it shows every sign of imposing itself on us.

Europe is already badly infected with Islamism. It is the coal-miners’ canary. It is telling us that the next stop is America. We must act and act now. We must not sacrifice our cherished way of life and the lives of our children at the altar of political correctness: the incubator of Islamofascism.

Answer 2

Most of your premises are incorrect.

Saudi Arabia is the primary contributor to Al Qaeda and Sunni-based terrorist cells.

Radicalism began in the 9th century, with the split between Sunni and Shiite heating up into armed conflict.

Iran is a representative democracy, with an elected President. And prior to 2004, was pro-western and US-friendly -- that changed when the US invaded both countries on either side of Iran, and the Iranian people elected their current leader to protect them from the US.

Yes, Iran is primarily Shiite, like the current leadership of Iraq. They oppose the Sunni, including Al Qaeda (a Sunni terrorist group) who considers Iran a mortal enemy.

Answer 3

Islamic fundamentalists are just their tools to use to press their own agendas, mainly using them to gain influence in the region.

Islamic Fundamentalists came about thanks to Saudi Arabia.
King Saud wanted to unite the different tribes in the area of Saudi Arabia. He needed help to do this. Along came the Wahabbis. They practice an extreme form of Islam. They promised to help King Saud and in return he would have to support them. Well King Saud made his deal with the devil and did unite the tribes and founded the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and these different tribes were now under one banner. The government in return for the Wahabbi patronage funded extreme madrassas around the world spreading the Wahabbi ideals. That in a nutshell explains the fundamentalists. Again, Iran and Syria are just using them. I am waiting for the day this backfires on them.