Originally posted by stockenIran IS a democracy? Yes, it's a limited and far from perfect one, Mullah's have power over certain aspects of the state, the Revolutionary Guard likewise, but their President was elected. Elected after a reformist government was destabilised by the US President calling them part of an "axis of evil", no less. I don't like the fellow, or his "politics" but he was elected.
Well, seeing as Ahmadinejad is yet another provocative idiot in a
dangerously powerful position, I say take it gently. It's not like they're in
a immediate position to start manufacturing WMD's. All they've got so far
is the means to build Nuclear Power Plants. Believe it or not, but the step
from that to useful (?) bombs (not dirty bombs which can b ...[text shortened]... they can join the UN and we can all live happily ever after.
If I may be so unrealistic.
And has no one asked why exactly Iran would WANT nukes? Like you say, they are not in an immediate position to build anything but...
US government calls them evil. Us government invades (justifiably, i'd say) neighbour to north. US government invades (unjustifiably, i'd say) neighbour to west. To the east, US props up regime. To the northwest, strongest US ally in the region aside from Israel (Turkey). To the southwest, another set of US client states - Saudi and Kuwait. I would think they feel somewhat surrounded now.
Oh, and of all the states in the region (aside from Israel) the US has relations with, or has invaded, only one matches Iran in democratic credentials, namely Turkey. And yet they are picked out as an example again and again and again (and their idiot president, yes, doesn't help matters, agreed). Pakistan, a dictatorship with far greater involvement in things like 9/11 (who do you think funded the Taliban? Pakistan intelligence, often as not chanelling CIA money) is allowed to get the bomb without being threatened by the US. Israel has had the bomb for years, it's no secret. Iran makes noises about wanting to produce atomic power, and suddenly they are destabilising the region?
Pull the other one, iit's got bells on.
PS:- "Dirty bombs" are essentially a myth. For them to do any damage, the people in the area affected need to stand still for the next ten years.