since their first days on the plateau, from origins somewhere deep inside russia, and perhaps ukraine itself, the iranians have been a bellicose people; a warlike nation, and one amongst many to be clear, but one with the intent and desire to conquer and assimilate, of which they did. all of the middle east fell, including egypt and even greece.

and then arose alexander, who struck the iranians down in one fell blow and transformed the middle east and iran in the process. iran was thoroughly hellenized. but, from the fringes of central asia, these barbarians arose again and rode back in to the plateau to rebuild their former empire.

once again, the new iran is recorded in history as a pesky and barbaric people intent on quarreling with the romans, who were clearly their military superior, until they no longer were, and centuries of warfare led to a final apocalypse, one not dissimilar to the story told in the bible. this is not substantive prophecy, so much as it is the most basic and most obvious geopolitical analysis possible from classical israel; yes, they will come from the east, and they did. as both rome and persia lay in ruins, the arabs wandered in from the desert and repopulated, and thoroughly struck down iran, once again.

but iran would not fall into the disused pages of history, for it rose again as an islamic empire, and in fact as the cultural and intellectual centre of the islamic world. not content with itself, it picked wars with the people around it, once again, and sought to dominate and control those around it a third time, until a blood thirsty genocidal horde rode in from the east and burnt everything flat to the ground, to teach them the lesson that alexander would not and muhammad could not. this was a thorough level of annihilation and it took many centuries to recover.

but, again, iran is back, and it's up to it's old and predictable behaviour - it seeks to dominate and control those around it.

i do not wish nuclear war on any people. yet, if these people could not learn from alexander, from heraclius, from mohammad and from genghis and tamerlane, then who will they learn from?

perhaps it will be america that will teach them a final lesson, as they face yet another imminent round of destruction by their neighbours for their persistent aggression, might they be so foolish, as they clearly are.

perhaps that is process.

perhaps that is the outcome that is correct.