Iranian nukes and the recent tape of ‘bin Laden’s voice’

The following two columns are covering different areas, but they overlap over an interesting dynamic in the radical Sunni/Shia camps. First, Tony Blankly goes over reasons as to why Iran is bent on nukes. One area he covers is Iran’s efforts to regain some radical islamic bonafides that have eroded since the revolution and subsequent compromises with the West. Blankly believes that Wahhabism has essentially outflanked the Shia state in this regard. Lee Harris comes from the other way. He ponders the reason for the recent tape and concludes that since 9/11, the balance of radical islamic power has shifted to the Shia. Bin Laden, assuming he’s not pushing up daisies, has to smuggle crappy audio tapes to al Jazeera in order to communicate with the world. Ahmadinejad on the other hand, is making the news every week. The tape was a plea, of sorts, to shift the US position away from the Shia. My summary is pretty poor. The Lee Harris piece, as always, is clear and well thought out.