Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan.Linehan  Dr. William O. Beeman, Brown University's Middle East Studies program professor, who spent years in Iran, says that the Iranian nuclear issue is a unified point of their political discussion:
Iran believes it has a legal right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The Iranian authorities assert that they cannot simply trust the United States or Europe to provide Iran with nuclear energy fuel, and point to a long series of agreements, contracts and treaty obligations which were not fulfilled. source
@ Marco Polo
Keeping all that in mind - when you say Iran is not a peaceful country, why exactly? Who have they attacked? I mean, the United States has caused between 400,000 and 1,200,000 excess deaths by attacking and occupying Iraq. Seems a bit like we're the pot calling the kettle black here. |
Certainly, the US has no business propagating war against Iran. I never suggested that.
However, I daresay that "peaceful" is a slightly misleading term to use for Ahmedinejad and the Ayatollahs.
1. Hezbollah is essentially a strategic arm of Iran. It was created by them during the 1982 Lebanon war, and has been maintained by them ever since [
source]. So Iran was essentially fighting a proxy war against Israel in 2006.
Iran also controls imporant levers in Iraq, and there is concern about their involvement with various Shiite militias. If you want you can read more on meib.org about their
dichotomous two-track policy.
2. The kidnapping of US diplomats in 1979 and the regime's unwillingness to end the siege was a blatant act of hostility.
3. I also vaguely remember the RG randomly kidnapping British sailors in the Persian Gulf, treating them like scum and parading them on international television (despite major ambiguities over maritime borderlines). Very peaceful-like behaviour, oh ya.
Take a second to consider their position: two of Iran neighbours are at war, and two regional powers, their enemy Israel and their geographical neighbour Pakistan, posses nuclear warheads. Suddenly the hawkish neocons pick a fight with them. Would it REALLY surprise you if they were pursuing nuclear capabilities as a detterent from attacks?
Again, I will reiterate that I'm strongly against any attack on Iran -- mainly for strategic reasons. And as a free nation they are fully entitled to peaceful nuclear aspirations.