Guest petr, That is a grossly over simplified view of an extremely complex situation that looks at US/Iranian relations in isolation while completely ignoring all the other players involved and their motivations.

I do not believe for one minute your generalisation that Iranians "fear and hate the US". If you opened up an office in Tehran issuing US Visa's you'd have a line a mile long before you could blink - that is how much the Iranians "fear and hate the US".

The "brutal regime of the Shah" is looked on by many Iranians as a period of peace, stability, prosperity and advancement enjoyed through out the country. I think you would be amazed at how many would gladly see a return to similar days in Iran today. The Shah's regime was certainly not as intolerant or as repressive as today's Iran under the attention of the AGIR - How many were publicly executed last year Guest petr? How many so far this year? Have you had a look at the crimes they were charged with? That did not happen under the Shah's rule.

As far as threats go petr, I take it that you can provide some reference to note your own condemnation of the current President's remarks relating to seeing "Israel wiped off the map". Please do not respond with the usual apologist crap about there being some error in translation. Judging by the reception that that remark, given at an International Anti-Zionist Conference, received it had absolutely nothing to do with any inherant interest in any political reform of a right wing Israeli political party.

The alarming and potentially dangerous situation that currently exists within Iran at present stems from the fact that the country is not ultimately ruled by an elected Government but by a self-appointed Council under the sway of a religious leader - the "Supreme Leader". Completely seperate from the usual set up of Civil Service, Judiciary, Armed Forces, Police and Emergency Services under the control of central and local Government you have the Iranian Revolutionary Guards who answer only to the "Supreme Leader" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who sits above the elected government, run by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Part of their writ is to support terrorist organisations throughout the region, to finance, train and equip them. They are run as a corporation, to a large extent they are self-financing which makes them that much less accountable and unpredictable.

The greatest threat to the United States of America as defined post 911 was what again Guest petr?

Rogue State + WMD/WMD Technology + Links to Terrorist Organisations.

GWB did not dream that up. That was the carefully considered and weighed opinion of the House Security Committee and of the US Defence and Intelligence Community. With regard to Iran, Guest petr, tick the boxes and tell me that Iran does not warrant careful scrutiny.