This is where I respectfully disagree, Iran does not hate the US for it's prosperity or Christian majority. Islam is not absolutely contrary to the US as a state or it's people, take Pakistan for example, is one of the big islamic republics and yet it has been a US partner since the late 40's. Religion does not imply politic stance, is the american foreign policy that is to blame for the antiamericanism that lies not only in Islamic countries, but also in the majority of Latin America and Russia. The US projects too much military power over the world, nobody likes to have someone else's weapons in their backyard. Not to mention it costs a lot too, and they are going straight to the fiscal cliff...
True, not all Islamic based countries are equal, just as all Christianity based countries are equal. But I think in the Middle East in particular, they have a couple of conditions that are different from the rest of the world.
First, they have oil. Oil=free money. Money=power. Hard to snub your nose and rattle your sword at the U.S. if you are a Third World African dictatorship, you have nothing to gain and no power to do anything. And they are surrounded by other nations/regimes that think similarly to them so they probably feel safe and secure from attack and that some of their Arab brothers would come to their aid if necessary.
Second, I think many of these tinpot dictators have realized that by both stirring up hatred to the West and keeping their citizens as in the dark as possible, it aids them in keeping the people where they want them. Why Islam?...well look at the decadence of the West. Why keep women covered up?...well don't you know that Western women are raped and sodomized and abused on a daily basis? If they didn't have the phantom enemy of the big bad Americans, who would they be mad at?
Anti-Americanism may have been the launching point for some of this attitude in the Middle East but it pivoted quite quickly into the same thing we have here. Savvy politicians, capitalizing on the mood of the public at the time and spinning the conditions for their own benefit and political power.
The difference with the 3rd reich vs. Iran comparison to me is military strength. The German military in 1939 was both objectively and subjectively the best in Europe (really the best in the World), and there was no Israel equivalent (a military that is arguably better) in Europe. I think the Iranian leaders are smart enough to realize a war with Isreal would be devastating to both countries, and Iran would likely cease to exist.
You're operating on the assumption that we're dealing with completely rational people. Completely rational people don't gain power and say, "
Oh yeah, I want to wipe Isreal off the face of the map". Nukes make military power almost irrelevant. If you truly hated Jews and thought that with the press of a few buttons you could wipe them off the face of the earth forever, which is possible, you might think you'd gain immortality within Islam. Pretty powerful drug that immortality.
