This Question is Misleading
Professor Stephen Blank
Strategic Studies Institute
The views expressed here do not represent those of the US Army, Defense Department, or the US Government
This question is in fact misleading. Under the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) which Iran is a signatory to, all members have the right to nuclear energy for peaceful uses, provided they abide the treaty’s provisions, including its Additional Protocol and submit fully to the inspections of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) provided for by the treaty and the Protocol. The fact that this question is posed rather than the real one about allowing Iran to have nuclear weapons is an indication of the success of Iranian obfuscation and propaganda. Indeed, if Iran fully observed the treaty regime and complied fully with its inspection provisions there would be no issue. And in the six-party negotiations comprising Iran, Russia, the United States, Great Britain, and France, the right of Iran to have nuclear energy for peaceful purposes has never been and is not being questioned. Therefore this question as it is posed is, in fact a red herring, a ruse to draw attention away from the real issue of whether or not Iran should be allowed to possess nuclear weapons.
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"The fact that this question is posed rather than the real one about allowing Iran to have nuclear weapons is an indication of the success of Iranian obfuscation and propaganda."
That is a circular argument (you are merely assuming what you are required to prove).
And the answer to the question of whether Iran should be allowed to have nuclear weapons is not just no, but hell no. They began their regime with an act of war against the US, and they have pursued no other course with us since. Their mantra is "Death to the Great Satan," and they have attacked us with their terrorist proxies repeatedly over the past 30 years. They have shown us plainly what we should expect if we allow them to acquire nuclear weapons.
You have duped by propagandists, for this I'm sorry. It was the US who who supplied Saddam Hussein with war materials to fight against Iran when they held their national revolution against a dictator who had support from the US and British governments. If any one should feel afraid, it it the country that was victimized, Iran.
We have also shown the world what to expect, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Where is our moral high ground?
So that whole hostage thing that happened back when I was in high school... that was just hoax? And all the other acts of violence against the US, the kidnappings and bombings, by Iranian backed terrorist groups, those are just myths?
The Iranian regime is made up of religious fanatics who persecute their own people and use the US as a scapegoat for all their problems. They don't oppose us because we once supported the Shah, or because we supplied Saddam with weapons. We only half-heartedly took Saddam's side in that war after the hostage crisis, after the bombing of the marines in Beirut, and after several years of hearing chants of "Death to the Great Satan." Even then, we only supplied him with 1% of his weapons arsenal, while Russia, China, and France together supplied him with 84%.
No, the reason the mullahs hate us is because we are the primary symbol in the world of what their ideology opposes: a secular, wordly culture that exalts individual freedom. That is why they have tried to whip their people into a frenzy of hatred against the US. They cannot win their ideological battle with the West by allowing their people a free and uncoerced choice between religious asceticism, and Western humanism. They need a constant state of war with the US to keep their people in line. It is the Iranian people--the ones who buy into the Great Satan lie--who are being duped.
Once again, I ask you to give me your sources for your statements. Otherwise, you sound like a tool for propaganda. I doubt Iranians who had family killed in the almost decade long war would agree with the half-hearted support idea. How much should we pay for a "half-percent" of military support. Any way get your facts and dates straight. And you ignored all the civilian deaths we caused in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The original data comes from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). I was unable to track down a direct link to the table on their website, which is where I first saw it, but it is reproduced in this Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_sales_to_Iraq_1973-1990
A copy of the original page is also preserved at this internet archive location. Click on the first pdf file to view the data table.
http://web.archive.org/web/20070507063305/http :// www.sipri.org/contents/armstrad/atirq_data.html
I notice that you used the phrase "half-percent", which is the actual figure, rather than the 1% that I quoted from memory. That suggests that you already knew these facts.
How much should we pay for a half percent of support? Nothing. The mullahs declared war on us when they took our embassy and held our people hostage. We did not encourage Saddam to make war on them. We merely gave him assistance after the fact to prevent him from losing to our avowed enemy.
As for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the US owes no apology for our actions against Japan. The Japanese attacked us. We were not morally obligated to sacrifice American soldiers by an invasion of Japan in order to end the war. We owed the Japanese nothing but the same ruthless violence they had used on us.
It was a lucky guess on my part. I was thinking while I was out that I should have taken the time to list the dates of all the things you said in your original post but I said half percent in total ignorance.
It doesn't change my moral point of view which is that if one can so can others. An odd way to rephrase the golden rule but it still applies.
That's fine that you think the US owes no apology but if you take the golden rule as a moral basis, I think you will understand the logic of my argument, which is if the US can find it's own justification for killing millions of civilians of another country then other countries will find it easy to respond in kind the same way.
So the question seems to lead to (I may not be right but it seems this way to me at the present time) "are we going for an eye for eye..." or are we going for moral high ground?
We can very well express our disagreement with other countries without making the whole population suffer as I would hope that other nations think about us. I would feel much safer in the world if no one was allowed to use nuclear weapons but as long as one country can then we can only expect others to do the same. I'm pretty sure Iranian mothers and fathers want just as much to protect their children as we do and it's in all of our interests to keep violence to a minimum.
"If one can, so can others."
So if it's okay for a free country to posess nuclear weapons for its protection, then it should be okay for a country run by fanatical theocrats, dedicated to the destruction of the Great Satan, to posess them? By this principle you would also have to say that no one could have had any moral objection to German rearmament under Hitler. Your morality, apparently, cannot distinguish between good political systems and bad ones, or between self-defense and aggression. That's a very weak morality.
As for "an eye for an eye" that is a phrase that applies to the justice system within a country, a way of punishing criminals for wrong-doing. As such, I don't agree with it.
When it comes to defending our country from attack, as we were doing in WWII against Japan, our purpose was to defeat the enemy. We were not trying to exact vengeance or mete out justice, we were trying to end their aggression. We had a responsibility to our soldiers not to sacrifice their lives needlessly. We were able to end that war by dropping two bombs instead of attempting to take the island by amphibious assault. It saved the lives of thousands of US soldiers. That was a morally sound decision.
I don't know how you think we are punishing the entire population of Iran by denying them nuclear weapons. Even if that were the case, though, they are responsible for their government. It's up to them to overthrow their oppressors, and end the mullahs' aggression against the US.
you point the obvious out and as clear as it is, these people refuse to recognize what you've said. IT's a fact that these people are a threat to the safety of any freedom. IT is also a fact that these people are actively evil. Socialistsuasan is an example of a person who must found captured and removed from society . There is no benifit in keeping them here. They cause a pollution of moral and intellectual corruption. The children they raise are evil. This is no joke. It is ignorant to think their existence is not harmful to society. they are the definition of evil. IT is a fact that must be recognized. IF america fails to progress to this level, then by all means it must be destroyed.
.. to the moral integrity of it's people.
Selfrighteous dishonest hypocrites are the substance of what is wrong with people. They have deligated that Jesus is the only evil.
that is immoral. neither should a democratic power populated by such people be in existance.
First my morality is quite clear. I trust no one, not even my government with nuclear weapons.
We "saved" thousands of US soldiers by killing millions of civilians and that is a good thing, why? Besides we lost a ton of soldiers in the storming of the European beach in WWII, talk about a lack of strategy and care for our men in service. They were thrown into a meat grinder.
But the over all point I was trying to make is why do you think the US is a good judge of moral character. I raised that if one can all can, because every nation has a sovereign right to protect their citizens. As a matter of fact that is the justification everyone gives for having nuclear weapons. Unless we are willing to give up ours, why make special cases. Lets campaign to have all countries dismantle their nuclear bombs.