Dissent Of The Day, Ctd

by Patrick Appel

A reader writes:

I think your reader typifies the kind of paranoia regarding Iran that seems to be driving us toward war.  Iran doesn't begin to compare to Japan of the 1930s and 1940s.

The Japanese had already occupied huge chunks of China in the 1930s; the Iranians could barely hold off the semi-competent army of Sadam Hussein in a war of attrition that lasted a decade.

The Japanese had an industrial base that could build aircraft carriers and first-class fighter aircraft. ...