Was the cold war a good idea?
They are trying to become a nuclear power. They have been working against the United States in every way possible since the revolution began. The alternative would be to put our head in the sand and hope for the best.
What conceivable legal or moral right would we have to do that?
Ever… since… the last time… we destabilized… their… country.
Okay, I see how it works now.
My point was to show that similar things are being done to us.
Iran does not have an independent press that salivates at the idea of exposing whatever they can find for financial gain and, in many cases, ideological purity.
I don’t know how to put it more simply…
Iran will do whatever they can to hurt us. We cannot bend over and stick our heads in the sand while they walk around behind us and drop their pants.
What do you propose we do?
What do you envision happening if we make nice with them instead? Or just ignore them?
The Cold War wasn’t an “idea,” it was just a situation and it has no application to Iran.
So what? What gives them any less right to be a nuclear power than anyone else?
No, at worst, they’ve been assisting the Shia Iraqi government with it’s vendettas against Sunnis. They haven’t done shit to the US. This may come as a shock to you, but the US does not own Iraq. If US troops get killed in sectarian crossfires, that’s on Bush for sending them there. Iran is no threta to the US.
I’ve heard this song before.
We could wait until they nuke Tel Aviv. Or until they close the straits of Hormuz. Would either of those actions be enough for you, Dio?
This isn’t a cold war.
And trying to destabilize their regime will stop them from that, how? The mullah’s don’t have much support from the people, who largely *want *to like the US. Making their lives more miserable just undermines that. I’m not so worried about our support of Air America type programming (propaganda, if you will), but subverting their currency is a really stupid idea.
Their signature on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
So how does that justify the US doing it?
Aren’t you glad we DO have that?
We heard this same horseshit 5 years ago about Iraq. We heard it 40 years ago to justify Vietnam.
Iran is not going to hurt you. Relax. You’re going to be fine.
And this story coming out now makes Esfandari’s chances even worse.
Prevent them from from becoming a nuclear power and a threat to our economy by whatever means we have at our disposal.
They would tell us what we wanted to hear and go on about their business of becoming the “flaming sword of Islam”. We are dealing with religious zealots who do not share our values or priorities.
That would make it easier for them to disrupt the world economy and to become a nuclear power.
They’re just enriching uranium for energy, there’s no proof they’re building weapons.
And the US has forfeited any right to appeal to international treaties.
That’s exactly how I feel about the Bush administration.
You’re right. It’s all in my head. You have shown me that Iran has neither the ability or the will to adversely affect the interests of the United States.
Funny thing is, if you look at the Middle East, we are more naturally allied with Iran than we are with Saudi Arabia. Not that either are all that appealing, but I mean if you look at it completely objectively. The Iranians hate us mainly because we hate them. And we hate them mainly because they hate us. But the Saudis really do hate us (on a fundamental level, even if they’re willing to deal with us economically and, when it suits them, militarily).
Perhaps the idea is to affect the economy and undermine the opinion of the government by enough people to make them want to get rid of the theocracy.
“They all hate us anyhow, so let’s drop the big one now.”
“They’re all good people. Just leave them alone and they’ll leave us alone.”
It’s the CIA program that does that, not the story. As Spavined Gelding pointed out, the Iranians need no press leak, they know perfectly well we’re plotting to destabilize them.