It occurs to me that we have a hell of a nerve telling Iran that they have to abide by our nuclear rules when we have the biggest nuclear arsenal in the world. Think about it. The guy next door stands on his porch, points his AR-15 at you and says you have to give up your pistol or he’s going to block your driveway so nothing can be delivered to your house.
Javad Zarif, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator agrees to inspections, including surprise inspections. It’s a start. Maybe.
The question that must be asked is why they continue to refine weapons grade uranium if they aren’t going to use it. Of course they have been doing this for over twenty years and they haven’t built a bomb yet. Either these guys have a very clever undiscovered agenda or they make construction on the Henry Hudson Bridge look almost functional.
Israel has been saying since 1991 that Iran is six months from a nuclear weapon. That’s 22 years and they are still selling the same dead horse. Maybe it’s Israel that’s lying, not Iran.
Zarif says that Iran does not want Nuclear weapons, that they understand nuclear weapons are as dangerous to them as too the rest of the world and that they have gone on line saying that they are against having them. He also points out that Israel is ass deep in nuclear weapons so why are they crying wolf. He brings up Iran’s first nuclear power facility that was created by Eisenhower in the fifties, which they couldn’t use because they couldn’t fuel it despite the fact that they owned 30% of a nuclear fuel company in France that couldn’t supply them because of Israeli and western interference. That’s why they feel that they have to make their own fuel. Maybe that’s true and maybe not. I mean, after all, Iran is one of the most oil rich countries in the world. Why the hell do they need nuclear energy? Even Iran isn’t trying to sell the idea that they are worried abut the environment/ That dog just won’t hunt.
Okay, Iran is not to be believed, nor is anyone else in the Middle East, including Israel. So where does that leave us, maybe, at the point where we are now. We all despise Putin but that shouldn’t get in the way of taking advantage of any help that he can give us with solutions to both the Syrian and the Iranian problems. I know the right will never understand this but the point of “help” has nothing to do with the source. It has to do with solving the problem. In this case it’s in Russia’s best interests to help solve the Middle East problems; so take advantage of it instead of having a childish fight over whether or not we should trust them. We don’t have to trust them to accept their help; all we have to do is accept their help.
For those who got all bent out of shape about my bunching Israel together with all the rest of the Middle Eastern countries who we shouldn’t believe. Get over it. Also get over the idea that Israel’s goals and our goals are the same. They aren’t. They agree in many instances but they are opposed in many more; as they should be. Over the years, we have been very staunch allies of Israel and in some instances they have been staunch allies of ours, but the scales are far from evenly balanced. A good part of the problems we have in the Middle East and a great deal of the hatred that Muslims have for our country, find their roots in our often blind support of Israeli policies that are neither good for the Middle East in general, nor for the countries that immediately abut Israel. Don’t get me wrong, we should be supporting Israel but we should also expect that Israel support us in equal measure, which it doesn’t always appear they do.
Bibi Netanyahu was over here the other day talking to the UN and he made a lot of sense. That’s because he is a very clever politician. We should listen to Bibi but we should always remember that he works for Israel, not for the USA. He was very astute in his comments about all the things that Iran has done wrong since 1979 when we kicked out Zia Mohyeddin, a legitimately elected leader and put in our puppet, The Shah.
The idea of Iran or any other country in the world having nuclear capability is a bad one. Right now there are a number of countries that do, including The USA, Russia, France, China, UK, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea. It’s an interesting mix and I think that’s what makes it borderline safe. Certain countries capabilities will always act as a balance against certain other ones. Only North Korea and Pakistan are worrisome at this point, mainly because of Pakistan’s instability and North Korea’s inscrutability. Ploughshare’s estimate that Israel has between 60 & 80 bombs is off by over a thousand according to most experts but no matter what your goal, 60 to 80 is more than enough to end the planet.
Even though negotiations have been held up, we should strive to forge ahead and try to make them work. The last thing we want is a military solution and Iran feels the same way. It’s a war they cannot win. The quickest way to get Iran out from under their religious dictator is to open them up, as much as possible, to western cultural influence, a move that is guaranteed to undermine anything that the mullahs have to offer.
Contrary to the poplar GOP party line, Communism was not destroyed in The Soviet Union by anything that Ronald Reagan did, but by TV’s exposure of western culture to which the Soviet people aspired. It should be pretty easy to do the same thing in Iran. Iran is the most sophisticated culture in the Middle East, with the possible exception of Egypt, and look where Egypt is now. By continuing our boycotts we are allowing them to remain insular and nothing supports an oppressive religious culture like insularity. Open up trade with them and watch them run for those Twinkies. Before you know it we’ll be seeing fat Persians, popping out of their short shorts, prowling the isles of Walmart in downtown Tehran.