Reply #16: The Putative "Shiastan", Sir

[The Magistrate]

Would indeed be hostile to us. It would also have ambitions towards the north of the Arabian peninsula, and be involved in hostilities with the "Sunni Confederacy", mostly expressed by private radical elements. All in all, none to stable, but stability has never existed in the region unless under some over-arching imperium or another. Again, coldly calculated, the interests of the U.S. would seem best served by intramural conflicts, likely to appear without even the need to foster them....