Iran's Nuclear Ambition

I must admit that Iran makes me more nervous than the former Soviet Union ever made me during the cold war. The USSR and USA balance had an understanding of what MAD (mutual assured destruction) really meant. But I really don't see that Iran understands the AD part of that. Obviously there is no Mutual portion of this. The west, and specifically the USA, has more than an overwhelming ability to end Iran's existence. The problem with that is that the present regime and the Islamic temperament could very well lead them into use of nuclear weapons for jihad.

The Iranian president has been at his braying again.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday painted the United States and other Western nations as bullies with "a medieval view of the world" and insisted his nation has the right to conduct nuclear research.

Medieval? Oh that is good. Wonder what century Ahmadinejad is living in. Certainly isn't the present.

"A few Western states ... have nuclear arsenals, they have chemical weapons. They have microbiological weapons. And every year they establish tens of new nuclear power plants. Now they are criticizing the Iranian nation ... because they think that they are powerful," Ahmadinejad said, apparently referring to the United States and the EU-3 -- Britain, France and Germany.

Mostly true.

"Our nation does not need a nuclear weapon," Ahmadinejad said. "We are a civilized and cultured nation. We have logic, we have civilization ... Nuclear weapons are only needed for people who want to solve everything through use of force."

He's right about Iran not needing a nuclear weapon, but that doesn't mean that they aren't trying to create one. I'm afraid I find his argument about how the US and the west solve their problems is just disingenuous. With any look at the past three years of the EU trying to bring a solution to the Iranian nuclear ambitions and the US sitting and watching would show that there is obviously not a force only mentality here.

Iraq is also a perfect point to prove him wrong. A decade of waiting for Saddam to comply with the UN. 18 months from warning to action for the final Iraqi war's major actions. Does this really look like a force only solution? Just because the final resolution was the use of force doesn't mean that it was the only solution attempted.

It looks like the EU is finally getting to the point of having lost patience. But taking this to the UN Security council will end up being a further waste of time. Just look at the German commentary.

Germany's deputy foreign minister, in comments from an interview to be broadcast Sunday on German radio, said that imposing economic sanctions on Iran would be a "very dangerous path" and would hurt both sides, according to Reuters. He favored imposing travel restrictions on Iran

If all you're going to do is travel restrictions, why bother doing anything at all? This just proves to the Iranians, and most of the Islamic countries, that the opponent is spineless.

"We won't be intimidated ... You don't even want us to do some research," said Ahmadinejad. "That's not fair. Even if you bring in the international community, we're still not going to listen to you the way you want. You are just tricking us, and this is not fair. You're not going to stop our research."

He accused the Western nations of using the threat of referral to the U.N. Security Council as a "stick" to threaten Iran. "Every day, they bring in a stick and tell us either we have to listen to them and do what they want or be referred to the Security Council ... You are using it as a stick, you are threatening us with it."

There is a perfect indicator that Iran is ruled by the insane. If they have only seen a stick in the past three years, they will never see a carrot. The EU has tried to give them an allowance for nuclear energy while trying to ensure that they won't develop a nuclear weapon. If all they truly wanted was nuclear power, they would have been happy with the presented solution. Iran wouldn't need to pay for the facilities to process and prepare the fuel, nor would they have to have the waste storage and processing facilities. Does this really look like a threat of punishment to a person that is right in their mind?