Let them have their nuclear power plants and bombs. I think were more likely to have a nuclear war if we invade them to stop them from having a bomb, since China and Russia are their trading partners, than if we just allow them to have it. It would just be a stalemate like in the SU, and I understand why they're eager to have a bomb. Countries with nuclear arsenals don't get invaded, because nobody wants to mess with them. That's just how it is. I don't think Bush jr. helped the situation either when he started erroneously equating NK, Iran, and Iraq with the WWII axis powers, since none of them even had any real connections with each other, other than the fact that the US government wants to invade them,
Sure, they may give bombs to terrorists like they say, but the same argument was made about Russia. I think they're going to keep track of their nuclear arsenal, because they don't want to be responsible for the end of the world. I like Iranian people as a generality, and they're rather modern, Women are allowed to hold jobs and drive, Sunni Muslims aren't persucted as Shiites are in the neighboring Sunni regions (in fact many Iraqis fled to Iran for refuge during the Iran-Iraq war and gulf wars), Jews aren't walled up in ghettos, etc. They get lumped in with their Sunni neighbors in Saudi Arabia, a confederacy of medieval, absolute monarchies that are subsidized by the US government, but they're very different in terms of culture.
Iran actually had a modern, constitutional government at one time, until the CIA and MI6 overthrew their democratically elected president in the 50's and restored absolute power to the Shah. It was because he wanted to nationalize oil production and leave BP and Shell out. When revolution did come, it was a lot like the Russian and French revolutions in that the power vacuum was filled by the biggest sociopaths. I don't think creating further instability with bombing raids is going to help Iranians though.
That's another thing too. Oppressive governments justify their selves through spreading the perception of an outside threat. That's how it was in the SU with the threat of Western, capitalist sharks during the cold war, and that's how it is in Iran today. When George Bush and Obama keep making open threats toward Iran, the government run, Iranian media plays footage of that and explains to the public how its not the time for reform. They justify oppression against protesters and reformers as necessary because of the Western element that seeks to topple their Islamic Republic. In the Soviet republics, there was similar repression for decades, but it didn't end until east-west relations cooled down under Gorbachev, and the state couldn't justify the oppression and low standard of living through the fear of external invasion anymore. If we really want Iran's government to topple, the western governments should cool their rhetoric down so reformers can change it from the inside out, just like during the days of Perestroika.
13 Feb 2006, 7:40 pm
