So maybe we got it all wrong

[Hax]

I won't go into what exactly Ahmadinejad meant when he stated the infamous "wiping off the map" quote concerning Israel. Do keep in mind however, that the same Islam that people seem to go totally insane over here in the west explicitly forbids people from harming Christians and Jews. At the same time, the rights of these two religious peoples (as well as Zoroastrians) are protected in the Iranian constitution.

Taliban is scum, but I don't care enough about the Islamic world to put troops in danger for their safety, if this is true we should get out.

You totally misunderstood what I meant. The Northern Alliance (yes, the same guys that assisted the United States) were actively supported by Iran before the actual invasion in 2001. Also, the influence of Iran within the Middle East should clearly not be underestimated (you know this, I think) and if the Coalition had been willing(!) to improve their relationship with Iran, I think that would have been a major asset in keeping both Iraq and Afghanistan stable.

Of course, we all know it's too late for that, unless the Iranian government is toppled, which doesn't seem likely.

EDIT: Just to clear some stuff up, I'm not trying to defend Ahmadinejad here, and I'm not saying that Israel has nothing to fear from him, quite the contrary. However, I think Ahmadinejad is far more intelligent that we perceive him to be (and way more intelligent than Assad and Netanyahu combined). What I personally perceive the thing to what Ahmadinejad was referring to was the dissolution of the state of Israel (which I don't exactly agree with either).