A nightmare scenario for Iran

[Mosby]

With a U.S. carrier strike group slated to arrive in the Middle East this weekend, President Donald Trump will soon decide what to do next with Iran. But first, he must grapple with an unanswerable question: Is Iran a multiethnic nation or a Persian-dominated empire? Even Iranians cannot answer authoritatively.

History offers a warning. Yugoslavia long presented itself as — and was widely understood to be — a pluralistic, multiethnic state. Many Yugoslavs embraced that identity sincerely. Yet when the regime collapsed in the early 1990s, the identity dissolved almost overnight. People called themselves Yugoslavs one day only to wake up the next as Serbs, Croats or Bosnians. Such arrangements can persist for decades — until, suddenly, they do not. Long-suppressed ethnic identities surfaced, and politics turned violent.

In Yugoslavia, the hegemonic Serbs made up roughly 36 percent of the population. In Iran, Persians account for a larger share but are almost certainly still a minority. A 2010 Iranian government study put them at 47 percent.

Washington Post

[Jilly_in_VA]

1. Iran

was the first of the Four Big Mistakes we made since WWII. We just can't seem to keep our muddy paws out of other people's governments. Now Shitler wants to make it five? And how is it that Every single one of these was at least initiated by a RepubliKKKan president and/or Secretary of State? Three of them by the Dulles brothers (Iran, Cuba, Vietnam) and the other (Iraq) by Darth Cheney? We need to learn to STAY OUT of other countries' governments and let them sort out their own messes. Lord knows we have enough of one here!