while on air, but since I wasn't 100% I didn't want to correct Dr. Fanning. It's a fine edge sometimes when dealing with a new guest on a show and I prefer to make friends not enemies of the new guests. As to point #2, well, you are right again, and I would just say that in the context of what we did last night getting into that level of nuance might really have turned some folks off. And the point really was to educate. The host took an hour and a half of DRIVE TIME radio to do this and is to be applauded. But yeah, for us here, your comments are well received and duly noted. I will pass them on. ;-)

^{"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all argument, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. This principle is, contempt prior to examination."}

...of some sort between Hamas and "the Shia" writ large beyond what we've seen with Hizbullah (it was pretty evident during this past summer's activities, and I expect to see even more) but I am cautious in two respects:

1) There seems to be a real idea being pushed that there's a "grand unified Shia alliance of terror" or some such out there. I think this is more a political idea than an operational reality, in the sense that pundits who are trying to justify US support for a particular stream of Israeli policy cite this sort of danger as a prime mover. I tend to think that there is clearly something to the notion of this sort of alliance, but that the nature of the connections is a lot less formalized and a lot less close than the view the pundits are pushing. Groups of folks with agendas that both compete and compliment using each other are increasingly being pushed as a hierarchical arrangement, with Iran pulling the strings.

2) It's very clear from Hamas' actions that they place real, hard limits on the nature of this relationship. They very much want the support that comes from Iran and their proxies, but they are very, very congnizant of the dangers of allowing Iran to actually move in and have an operational presence on the ground in their homeland. Not least, if they go too far down that road they're going to be vulnerable to more hardline Salafis.

I'm totally sympathetic to the notion that one has to simplify and get basic ideas out there. My hat's off to you guys; getting ideas like this out there via radio, where everything happens on the fly with no script, no net and no "rewind, clarify comment" button - that's a tough, tough gig. Add to that it being an interactive format with callers and questions - yikes. It was a real eye opener to hear some of the questions that listeners had - though it was heartening to hear the extent to which they wanted more information about guys that they knew they really didn't understand well enough.

I look forward to future shows.

"We declared war on terror, it's not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I'm sure we'll take on that bastard ennui." - Jon Stewart.

^{"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all argument, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. This principle is, contempt prior to examination."}