[Publius]

Afghanistan was once within Iran's sphere of influence, but that ended with the Soviet invasion. Now Afghanistan threatens to become part of an Uzbek-Tadjik-Pakistani sphere of influence, and Khatami knows that if he wants to be a player, he has to sit at the table.

Ali Khamenei, the supreme religious leader, does not want to do business with the Great Satan, but Khatami has eased him into agreeing to remove 700 Iranian soldiers from Yugoslavia and other places where they have been active troublemakers. Geopolitics may well put Mohammed Khatami in the position of dragging Ali Khamenei, kicking and screaming, to the table.

[Rocketman]

Wow! This is an amazing statement from this guy -- Read an article yesterday saying that he did NOT have the blessing of the Countries highest Cleric to talk to the US article said he was planning to -- looks like he will. On another front Jordan announced it may supply troops to hunt down terrorists Seems like a big day on the Arab coalition front.

[Shermy]

"perceived opponents" -- give him an "A" for use of "perceived."

"Terrorism is nothing more than a projection of destructive forces of the human unconscious" --I read that Khatami received engineer-training in the west. Picked up some psychology, that's real good! Doesn't give ignorant explanations.

Also noticed no (perceived) "root cause" stuff that always qualifies Arab responses. Very interesting...

If it wasn't for the Mullahs, we'd be in Kandahar with the Iranian army by now, methinks.