[video=youtube;rutrNbkrhIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rutrNbkrhIA&feature=related[/video] The Department of Defense report on Iran's military power makes it clear that the real Iranian threat is not aggression but rather it's deterent capability and it's intention to "destabalize" the region by expanding it's influence in neighboring countries which threatens US control of Middle East oil. Robert Tucker's influential "The Purposes of American Power" was the lead article in the journal Foreign Affairs of the Council on Foreign Relations in the issue of Winter 1980/81: As Noam Chomsky points out: "US invasion and military occupation of Iran's neighbors is "stabilization." Iran's efforts to extend its influence in neighboring countries is "destabilization," hence plainly illegitimate. It should be noted that such revealing usage is routine. Thus the prominent foreign policy analyst James Chace, former editor of the main establishment journal Foreign Affairs, was properly using the term "stability" in its technical sense when he explained that": Iran's deterent capacity might interfere with US freedom of action in the region. US "Grand Area" planners declared that: -The Middle East in this case.
You are right on the money here, all hail the indispensable Chomsky. I remember seeing the shelling of protesters during the green revolution. They have a young and dissident population on their hands - thanks to Khomeini's policies - who have been met with arbitrary arrests and governmental brutality. So I support the people in their fight against tyranny - their freedom status is woeful. But the reason their government is so demonized in the West is because they don't/won't capitulate and there's something strangely satisfying about that. There's a massive paradox here.
Drive a wolf into a corner and you have a tangible "wolf-threat". So, who is the cause of that "threat"?
It's the traditional self fulfilling prophecy strategy. During the Cold War Washington often did everything it could to drive targeted governments into the hands of the Soviets. In Guatemala 1953, they carried out a "terror campaign" (bombing) to "frighten" President Arbenz in hopes that he would begin to appeal to the Soviets for aid, thus creating a pretext for intervention. When it didnt work, the CIA overthrew the capitalist democracy anyways and installed a vicious military dictatorship which lead to the slaughterhouse it remained untill 1996 with constent US backing. In Nicaragua 1985 as it was being attacked by Washington's terrorist army, the Reagan administration enforced a trade embargo and cut off all sources of supply except for the Eastern bloc. When the Sandinistas were forced to rely more and more on Soviet aid for counter insurgency warfare, Washington and the major media pointed to that as justification for escalating the terrorist war, even though the USSR declined to offer the quantity of aid it provided to communist allies.
India has had nuclear capabilities for years, since the 1990's at least. They started in the 1950's. You really can't take away that capability not without a nuclear war. Iran is different, and Iran wants to kill all of us due to their religious beliefs of superiority. The only reprieve we'll have is the first and biggest nuke they have will take out Israel...we'll at least get a warning before they try to blow us off the map. I wouldn't worry about an American strike. I'd worry about an incompetent leader allowing Iran to gain such power and then putting America in the very real risk of nuclear war. Besides....I wouldn't expect someone who quotes Kim Il Jong in their sig to understand in the slightest.
Iran opposes American policy, they represent a major threat to Zionist expansionism, but a potential major player in the search for peace. They will not bomb America. I don't believe that - there is no difference to the chairing by Ahmadinejad or Obama, they are both getting their people behind the issue as is to be expected. What is the difference between Iran's "death to America" chants and America and Israel's pre-emptive strike calls? Iran doesn't want an all out war, it would be terrible. They want America to start listening up. They want to be in a position in which they cannot become another Iraq, and in all seriousness who can blame them. That said, there is a sane person somewhere in my head hoping that I'm not wrong.
The real threat to the region is starting a nuclear arms race, which is why a nuclear Iran is unacceptable. Preventing nuclear proliferation in the world's most volatile region is in the international community's interests and the US is spearheading diplomatic efforts to achieve this goal and it's not Iran's sovereign right to acquire nuclear weapons as Iran is a party to the NPT.
A nuclear arms race already exists between Pakistan and India for a while. A nuclear Iran isn't even close to being threatening unless they don't properly dispose of their waste and as posted above absolutely no prove has been presented that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, that had ceased in 2003. They've even stated they are not interested in nuclear weapons development. The three countries Pakistan, India, and Israel that haven't signed the NPT are much more dangerous to the region. The sanctions also placed on Iran for no justifiable reason far outweigh the diplomatic efforts. This entire nuclear facade is all about isolating Iran economically and politically. Money and political influence is much more efficient then weapons. Ruining a country's economy or replacing a democratically elected leader without force is power not guns, tanks or nukes.
The backing of the wolf into a corner analogy is perfectly apt here. Iran wouldn't even desire nuclear weapons if America hadn't all but stated it had no intention of ever playing nice with Iran and continuously saber-rattling at Iran alongside Israel.