The Intelligence Summit has a great short piece that helps a bit towards understanding Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's motivations behind nuclear development. Of course, joining the international club of atomic powers is quite prestigious, but I'm guessing a desire to incinerate Israel is the trump card. The secular west has such a poor grasp of just how important religion is in the Middle East. If you've studied European history, just think of the Middle East as mediaeval Europe with MiGs and Kalashnikovs substituting Islam for Christianity.
My impression of Saudi Arabia when I was there was that of a 13th century country desperately trying to buy its way into the 20th but failing. Failing because the people weren't coming along into the 20th, just the stuff. This struggle against the transformation of the culture and the man is what seems to be driving the Middle East's unrest. The Islamic reactionaries are pushing back as hard as they can, and you can't push back harder than with nuclear bombs. Ahmadinejad is as reactionary as they get and he won't rest until he has enough nuclear weaponry to lay the west low I fear.
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