Iran or Bust

So off to Iran the U.S. is heading. Down the same path of lies, smears and misrepresentations that lead the nation to Iraq - just a little further this time.

The rhetoric is starting to flow from the likes of Bush, Cheney and Rice. The mainstream media and their shills are showing very little objectivity and are not challenging questionable statements. I don't get it on television, but i'm sure the loudmouth propaganda crew at Fox News is cheering the next war along, with their mostly undereducated, and all racist viewers nodding in agreement.

Meanwhile, both Iran and the IAEA report that Iran is compying with all requirements of the nuclear watchdog. The EU is using diplomacy to see the situation through peacefully, and Iran is threatening nobody. Sounds familiar to the very beginning of the runup to Iraq. Remember Hans Blix and Scott Ritter? Iraq has no weapons. Iraq is complying. They got invaded anyway.

Iran reports that they are well within their rights to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. Why not, we in Canada have nuclear power plants so why not the Iranians? But the U.S. seems adamant on their 'facts' and 'intel' which tells them that Iran is developing the technology for weapons purposes. I agree that Iran would like nuclear weapons, and likely discusses and plans for it, but that is beside the point of whether or not the U.S. is going...it has nothing to do with me.

Obviously I would prefer if Iran didn't have nuclear weapons, but not because i'm worried about them using them. They can't use them unless they want to be turned into a glass parking lot as well, so that is out of the question. I just don't want to see more nukes on the planet than there already are.

But should they not have the same right to have a nuclear deterrent as the U.S. and the other nuclear powers? They are in an unstable region of the world, being on top of the U.S.'s oil and all. You'd want a strong deterrent too.

With the U.S. and Israel driving to strengthen their strategic hold over the region, and with Afghanistan and Iraq in the dust, the power base in Iran has no choice to work towards the only deterrent they see that will keep the U.S. at bay.

The U.S. and Israel have converging interests in seeing the leadership in Iran change, and will do whatever necessary to ensure Iran does not become a nuclear power and tip the balance of power in the most important region of the world in the early stages of declining oil supplies.

See you in Tehran. And i've never been to Damascus.