I think many Iranians did and still feel a deep-seated resentment against America for what it did to the country way back when. And their government spares no resource to drill that history lesson, among many other real and imagined grievances, into every generation’s heads.

The constant government administered rallies of “Death to America” have been almost ritual since the Ayatollahs came to power and long before Bush was elected. That many still admire the US “despite” decades of that indoctrination of hate should be cause for celebration.

Political, economic, and military realities change, and the way nations interact with each other change with them. This has been true since the first nation-states started dealing with each other thousands of years ago.

You can hate it and criticize it and dismiss it as much as you want, but that's the fact.

The Center for Public Opinion (“TFT”) is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization established in Washington, D.C. Terror Free Tomorrow finds out why people support or oppose extremism.

Nation States..........thousands of years ago?

The first Nation States began appearing in mainly 19th century Europe, relatively recently, so thousands of years .....no.

New York Times report published Friday quoted U.S. officials as saying more than 100 Israeli F-16s and F-15s staged the maneuver over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece in the first week of June. It said the aircraft flew more than 900 miles, roughly the distance from Israel to Iran's Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, and that the exercise included refueling tankers and helicopters capable of rescuing downed pilots. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he prefers that Iran's nuclear ambitions be halted by diplomatic means, but has pointedly declined to rule out military action.

The Greek Air Force says it partook in an Israeli military exercise which is regarded as a rehearsal for a potential attack on Iran.
Greek sources speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed a NYT report that Israel's military maneuvers which were carried out earlier this month off the southern Mediterranean island of Crete, were preparations for a future war with the Islamic Republic.

The Greek source, however, assured that no terrestrial targets were involved as the operation was mainly aimed at personnel training.

According to a NYT report, more than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters participated in the military drills which involved simulated aerial combat, attacks on terrestrial targets, aerial refueling, and search and rescue missions.

The report quotes a senior Pentagon official as saying that the operation was aimed at sending a clear message to the world that Israel is prepared to act militarily if diplomatic efforts to stop Iran's uranium enrichment failed.

Israel accuses Iran of 'producing bomb-grade uranium' and has repeatedly threatened the country with war.

This is while Israel bars inspections of its nuclear facilities and is widely believed to have over 200 nuclear warheads in its arsenal. Israel calls its approach of neither denying nor admitting that it has nuclear weapons 'strategic ambiguity'.

Iran, however, is a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and allows the UN nuclear watchdog to conduct inspections of its nuclear facilities.

Who knows what the exercises are for. One thing is for sure when it involves the Israeli government something is definately fishy.

Israel was just spying on Greece, they will then pass on any info they have collected to their Turkish friends.
When it comes for Iran's turn, Israel will just get England and the USA to do their dirty work just like they did in Iraq.

Iran is no Lebanon.

Israel, widely known as the sole possessor of 200 to 400 nuclear warheads in the Middle East, has recently stepped up its rhetoric against Iran and is believed to be preparing the public for an attack on the Islamic Republic's nuclear installations.

On June 6, a day after the military exercise, Israeli deputy prime minister Shaoul Mofaz told the Yediot Aharonot that Tel Aviv would attack Iran if the country did not halt its nuclear activities.

While the US and Israel accuse Tehran of making efforts to produce nuclear weapons, the most recent UN nuclear watchdog report on Tehran has conceded that there is no link between the use of nuclear material and 'the alleged studies' of weaponization attributed to Iran by Western countries.

Any relation, diplomatic , military, business, etc, with the State it will certainly imply a "win-lose" situation. They "win", we "lose". There is not a single nation in history which having entered into a covenant with the State has emerged with any substantial benefits. The benefit is, and has always been, only one way. The State is self sifficient, and all powerful , and only requires " dirty hands" to do their "dirty jobs".

Is it the US's responsibility to support Israeli objectives?

UNICEF indicates that 240 villages on the Saudi Arabian side of the border have been evacuated and the civilian residents forced to settle in refugee camps. On the Yemeni side, the number of internally displaced persons has increased in a matter of weeks by 25,000, and now totals 175,000 since the conflict began. It is impossible to know the number of people killed due to a government-enforced media blackout.

Despite this, there are all the hallmarks of an impending disaster. Signad Kaag, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said, “During the past three months, children affected by the conflict in the north have seen all their basic rights violated. Lack of safe water, nutrition and hygiene is exerting a heavy toll on their health and well-being and threatening their very survival – a situation that will only get worse with the coming of winter.”

Saudi Arabia shows no sign of letting up. They have voiced their intent to create a “buffer zone” 10 km deep into Yemeni territory and have imposed a naval blockade on its north coast.

Yet, the US signed a cooperation agreement on military intelligence and training with Saleh’s government last week, thus making them party to the conflict. This ironically puts them on the same side as elements of Al-Qaeda, employed by Saleh to fight the Houthis.

Although the Gulf monarchies and other Arab dictatorships have voiced support for Yemen and the “territorial integrity of Saudi Arabia,” the tone adopted by both Shia and Sunni Muslim groups in the Middle East, such as Iran’s Society of the Seminary Teachers of Qum and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, has been one lamenting the hostilities and stressing the need for reconciliation (this is in stark contrast to the overtly hostile, anti-Iranian, anti-Shia vitriol of the Saudi religious establishment, which called on their government to strike the “deviant” Houthis “with an iron fist”).

With friends like Israel, who NEEDS enemies? We have pumped trillions of our tax dollars to them, given them our most advanced equipment, had to rationalize and defend any and every act they do--and veto like crazy in the UN, had to take enemy stances against every other nation in the area on their behalf (who were then driven to the USSR, against us), and in the process, we have invited/challenged the oil nations to punish us, economically.

>>>>Israel has spies in our government, and when we find one, we just complain and send him home with a frown (it wouldn't be nice to keep 'em in jail!). They intentionally sink our ships and we say we, you know, sorta wish they'd, well, stop it. And when we pointedly tell them not to do something, they just laugh, flip us off, and do it, anyway--and we just smile, shake our heads, laugh, and say, "those rascals!"<<<<

Our relationship with Israel is really the tail wagging the dog. We have no policy over there that is not first approved by Israel. So, it's kinda fruitless for us to debate these matters.

So, it's kinda fruitless for us to debate these matters.

i think you should carefully re-read that last bit.

With friends like Israel, who NEEDS enemies?

one that may require more than kindergarden education.

to sum it up, it states that any proof you come up with that is based on a false assumption does not hold.

for instance, that israel is bad for business because it sucks the US into a conflict with Iran, that would be -- that would be a false premise.

sell your faulty product with pretty packaging and no warranty, but it will still break down every time you try to use it, and though people may buy it once, they probably won't buy anything else from you again.

With friends like Israel, who NEEDS enemies?

i did not state that this is an israeli-iranian conflict. you did. you have to come up with proof that it is, because at present, it does not look so.

Show the page and message number where I might have stated [that this is an israeli-iranian conflict]such a thing .

seems the Greeks already have the picture about the Israelis and how they suck others into doing their dirty work for them.

Maybe if the Greeks help them they won't try to suck the US into it?

The US won't get sucked into any conflict with Israel [...] let them clearly know that if they start any conflict ... they are totally on their own.

Show the page and message number where I might have stated such a thing.

you did not start the thread, but you chose to participate in support of the false premise that this thread represents.

i did not state that this is an israeli-iranian conflict. you did. you have to come up with proof that it is, because at present, it does not look so.

Is it the US's responsibility to support Israeli objectives?

Is the middle east conflict more about protecting Israeli sovereignty than democracy and oil?

"... if Israel is that dead set on stirring up trouble with Iran ... they need to stop trying to get us to be their proxy."