Just exactly what threat is Iran to America?

John Seiler

I saw Norman Podhoretz plumping his new book, “World War IV,” on CSPAN-2. ...Podhoretz contends World War III to be the Cold War and World War IV to be against what he calls “Islamofascism” — every contention of which is an absurdity. ...

“Islamofascism” is a term I have attacked for years. Fascism was a political system located mainly in Europe in the 1920s-1940s. It is secular in nature; both Mussolini and Hitler, the primary fascists, were anti-religious and secular. So it’s silly to attach a religion to it, as in “Islamofascism.” Fascism also requires a first-class, large industrial base, which no Muslim country has unless it has unless it has oil. And having oil just means you can buy things, not that you are talented at making anything.

Podhoretz compared Iran to Nazi Germany. Except that in 1939 Germany was the second largest industrial nation, after America, and had a long and effective military tradition. Comparing them to Iran, which has relatively small industrial output, is absurd. Iran’s industries mainly are developed by foreigners.

Podhoretz wants the U.S. government to attack Iran to prevent a nuke the Iranians supposedly are developing. Gordon Prather, a physicist and former science advisor to Ronald Reagan, effectively explodes the Iranian nuke threat in his many columns here.

Iran’s conventional military hardly has recovered from the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. The Iranians have almost no capability to build major weapons on their own.

They just built their first warplane — it’s a knockoff of a U.S. F-5, a 48-year-old design. It’s called the the Sa’eqeh, or Lightning. The U.S. Air Force or the Israeli Air Force could dispatch it in seconds.

So Iran doesn’t threaten America. It does have a loud-mouthed leader with an unpronunceable name, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who actually doesn’t have much real power.....