Iran and America’s Tug of War

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• Reader Comments (8)

  Page 1 of 1 pages

  Many if not all of the arguments presented in this article for Iran’s “power” are based on its oil. If we really believe in global warming due to burning fossil fuels, their power should wane over the next decade or two. Of course, if the crazies (Ahmadinejad is a great example!) in Iran get nuclear weapons, we would be foolish to believe they would not use them (they are so crazy they even state this very clearly).

  So i would say that oil may be a source of influence for Iran, but only for a limited time (less than 20-30 years). Nukes are there ambition and we should do everything we can to prevent them from getting them - and then using them.

  Germany is leading the Western world in photovoltaics. If the US would follow their example, the energy world will look very very different in the coming decades.

  (This is very close to a joke name, don’t ya think - Fukuyama? As in fuc your mama!)

  Posted by wolf on Jun 26, 2007 at 7:17 PM

  I doubt any country would ever use nuclear weapons. The iranians are portrayed by the media in the US as “crazy” but they are not stupid nor are they crazy. So far, in the history of the world, only one country has ever used nuclear weapons and the same country (America) is now openly talking bout using nuclear weapons on the battle field.

  Also what would you do? Pretend you are iran, to your left is the US in Iraq, to your right is the US in Afghanistan. Above you are US bases in the former Russian republics. To the south are US bases in the Arab Emirate. Wouldn’t you suspect that you might be next and if so wouldn’t you want to have a deterrent?

  99.9% of wars would be avoided is people just put themselves in the position of the opposition and not believed the rubbish the governement spin-doctors feed them.

  Posted by kafs0 on Jul 3, 2007 at 11:14 PM

  katsO, you are absolutely right and I try in everyway to teach my students and grandchildren to develop that kind of understanding, which I feel is the only way to become “humane”.

  Posted by Maria on Jul 5, 2007 at 4:57 AM

  kafs0 - The president of Iran makes it clear he would use nuclear weapons, if only he had them. While i am sure you are a nice enough fellow, i think i will listen to what the crazies say and be wary of them.

  If i were Iran (or the US or any other country), i would spend my resources on helping the population. While the west has done a fair job of this, the middle east remains pathetic. The problem there is not so much outside enemies, but rather a populace that is still living with a middle age mentality, due to a barbaric religion that virtually enslaves women. They are to be pitied, and helped if possible. But they also need to be contained, they simply are not ready for the type of technology that the west has developed over the last 100 years or so.. Letting them have modern weapons is no different from giving children guns, and is likely to have the same results on a much larger scale (and the US/West/Russia/China are all too responsible for trading guns for oil there).

  Posted by wolf on Jul 6, 2007 at 7:01 PM

  Wolf,

  If you are referring to the miss-quoted/miss-translation (widely acknowledged) about wiping Israel off the map then thats not what was said. It was a widely acknowledged miss-translation made to make him look bad. Don’t get me wrong, the guy seems like a complete idiot and from what I understand has little support at home.

  No arguments about the backwardness of the current Iranian government. However, it is up to the Iranian people to choose who governs them, not us. When they decide they don’t want it anymore, they will have a revolution and they will elect whoever they want (as happened in the former USSR). All we can do is set a good example that other aspire to, not bomb the crap out of them. History has shown over and over again, that military intervention does not work, and yet, because of our need for oil and the greed and inhumanity of our leaders, the same mistakes kept getting made over an over again. Hundreds of thousands have died in Iraq and continue to do so on a daily basis., and the western world is less secure than it was before. So everyone loses, except Haliburton and the oil company buddies of Bush/Cheney.

  As for radical Islam, well, it wouldn’t even exist if the US hadn’t supported Bin Laden and Pakistan during the 80s to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. The whole problem of the middle east comes down to 2 things: the need for oil and the west’s attempts to monopolize it through puppet regimes and wars; and Israel, (which already has nuclear weapons by the way). Figure those things out and the world would be a more peaceful place. 

  Peace.

  Posted by kafs0 on Jul 9, 2007 at 1:47 PM

  kafs0

  I don’t think anything we do can possibly “fix” the middle east. Their problems are very severe and mostly unrelated to the US or West (the virtual enslavement of women is a good example). However, if we stopped giving them weapons (via the transfer of large sums of money for oil), i think it would calm the region down a bit. Germany has been investing in photovoltaics in a very serious way; the West in general should follow this example. Otherwise the pursuit of energy very well might become ever more violent.

  Our best strategy is to end any dependence we have on the middle east (which is mostly oil). By doing this, they (the people, not the tyrants) will still suffer, but just as those who suffer and die in Darfur are not our problem, the middle east suffering will not be our problem. An improvement of sorts.

  Posted by wolf on Jul 10, 2007 at 1:50 PM

  Wolf, you were never requested to “fix” any region of the planet, you have been meddling in every possible region without being invited to, assuming you are superior to the rest and for very greedy reasons too. No one asked you to patronize dictatorships in Latin America, to train its military in the School of the Americas, to have CIA all over the world casting your influence on governments and this has been going on for many decades. As for the Middle East’s problems they are their own and would be perhaps solved if they were left alone. Their main problem is having “your” oil under “their” soil. I think your country has enough problems of your own to solve with all the drug addiction, violence, racism, worship of money and success and brain manipulation by the media as to leave you much time to care for the suffering of others.

  Posted by Maria on Jul 11, 2007 at 3:51 AM

  Wolf is certainly dead on that the US needs to adopt a progressive approach to alternative energies but it needs to happen now and not with the US standing in the middle east with a military stranglehold on their resources for the next two or three decades. The power thirsty madmen who sit at the top of the food chain are draining more life and wealth from the world population every day and most Americans have no clue because these same men who head these attrocities own the major media outlets.  The denial and apathy of the American populace is at an all time high and those crazies up top have done such a good job that much of the ignorance is being perpetuated on the individual level.

  Unfortunately the infinitely shortsided nature of the US economic and foreign policies have created a situation where they had better fix the damages they have done in the middle east or else it will become the worlds worst ever recorded ‘hit-n-run’.

  Kafs0 and Maria, I hope you continue to share your insights and conscious awareness with everyone you can.

  The human race needs to wake up now before the insanity leaves us in smoldering ruins and an atmosphere unable to sustain life for the next million years…

  Love All

  Posted by loudturtle on Jul 16, 2007 at 4:42 PM

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Also by Robert S. Eshelman

• Operation Infinite Imperialism
  Two recent books examine America’s military and diplomatic forays into South and Central Asia.
• Muqtada, the Future of Iraq
  
• Palestinians in Iraq Face a Second Exile
  Threatened in Iraq, these refugees have no country to return to.
• Iran and America’s Tug of War
  Iran's real threat to the United States has less to do with nuclear ambitions and more to do with an explosive tension between politics and resources