Mike the Usurper wrote:

Bush was speaking a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has resisted Western pressure to toughen his stance over Iran's nuclear program, made clear on a visit to Tehran that Russia would not accept any military action against Iran.

This is getting ridiculous. Not that I have any special love for Iran, but from everything identifiable, they are holding up their end of non-proliferation. If we're that damn worried about it, we can set something up for standing watchdogs from IAEA at the Iranian nuclear sites. Of course, that's not the plan, the plan is to blow the crap out of Iran and start a holy war.

I think the rattling over Iran's nuclear ambitions has more to do with their support for Hezbollah and now the Iraqi insurgency... I think you are somewhat falling for their ruse by accepting their argument that they are complying with non-proliferation requirements. The whole purpose of the program is the fuck with the geopolitics of the middle east. This has nothing to do with energy or science.

They are playing a game with the U.S. wherein the best bet (which for some reason Saddam didn't get) is to constitute a totally civilian program, allow all inspections and pass all inspections. Obviously they don't need this program; we don't need a space program - it serves political purposes, not energy purposes, and the west knows this. Iran can build it, and discredit the west by passing inspections, and it does actually get them closer to obtaining weapons capability, but they can argue that it is innocent and they have a right as a nation to do it, and they'll win. The west cannot let up pressure, for if they do they'll create a window through which a bomb could be obtained, but they'll find it increasingly difficult to justify the pressure over time.

Iranian operatives helped coax the United States into war in Iraq, they maintain the insurgency there, they support hezbollah, who drew Israel into a deeply myopic and failed military action recently, which, combined with a policy of domestic assasination politics, has whittled the democratic government of Lebanon to the point where it may fail.

All of this is performed with the implicit support of Russia and China, who are basically engaged in a long term bid to control access to energy resources. There are some people in the US who would like nothing better than to march into Tehran and blast the people responsible for this game to kingdom come. There are many problems with that idea, including what precisely what was announced here: That Russia and China will retaliate and you've got WWIII. Thats been obvious for a long time.

Unfortunately, I think Iran has shrewdly played the west like a fiddle for the past few years and we're loosing at every turn. I don't think playing these military games with them is the path to success. I think we need broader cooperation in economic sanctions against Iran because of their support for terrorism. The people of Iran are well educated and worldly and the people of the world ought to be showing them that they do not tolerate financial support for murderers. Furthermore, I think we need to invest more in international energy research projects.

RE: Bush: Threat of World War III if Iran goes nuclear - Yahoo! News