a country that finds it perfectly acceptable to overrun another countrys embassy and hold that countrys diplomats hostage is not likely to be squeamish about the use of nuclear weapons. This is particularly true if motivation for the use of the nukes is driven by religious zeal. So it will be with Iran when they perfect the nuclear weapons program thats currently under development in that country. Does anyone doubt that as soon as enough bombs are in place to do the job that the Iranian theocracy would use them against Israel? If so, they are delusional.
Iran has long been pivotal in sponsoring terrorists who are waging war against the west and has not been shy about voicing its support for the demise of western civilization. The recent discovery of high quality munitions including sophisticated landmines in Iraq that are thought to originate in Iran changes the dynamics at work in that region completely, as allied troops on the ground are encountering insurgents with obvious military training who are no longer making the mistakes they made a year ago.
as reported in the Financial Times last week "the 1,000-strong Task Force Maysan, stationed south of amara, has noticed a dramatic change in the 'quality' of attacks on them this summer.
"Last year British troops fought daily gun battles with Shia militiamen loyal to the maverick cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr. This year the number of attacks has dropped, but the attackers appear to have had some highly professional training " almost certainly from militias and elements of the Revolutionary Guard across the border in Iran."
Whats really worrisome about this apparent new development is that it represents a broadening of the war without a formal declaration on the part of the Iranians. Its even more worrisome to think that a people with a medieval mentality might soon be in possession of the most powerful weapons ever devised by man.
Irans president-elect, Mahmud ahmadinejad has disingenuously told western media outlets that Irans interest in developing nuclear power is to increase production of domestic electricity. However, Iran currently produces some 10 billion kWh of electricity more than it consumes on an annual basis, which belies the claim that nuclear power is needed to generate electricity.
In addition, Iran produces somewhere in the order of 4 million barrels of oil per day of which it consumes less than 1.5 million barrels per day, meaning that no matter how you look at it, Iran has more energy domestically than it needs.
as a so-called "Islamic Republic", Iran is not committed to the concept of human rights or liberty. On the contrary the Iranians are fairly heavy-handed with dissenters. The death of Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi at the hands of Iranian prison guards on July 11, 2003 is an example of just how extreme that countrys disapproval can be. another example of Irans heavy-handedness with dissent is the case of jailed journalist akbar Ganji. Ganji was jailed in 2000 for attending a conference in Berlin and has been held ever since.
We in the west value the concept of the separation of church and state for good reason. as a theocracy, in Iran the church is the state and vice versa. The laws that govern the citizens of that country are enacted by clerics, which to put it perspective, would be similar to Jerry Falwell enacting our laws.
Whether it happens now, next month or next year, there will be a confrontation with Iran at some point in the future and it will be a violent one. If we allow Iran to successfully complete a nuclear weapons program, the coming confrontation will take on an ominous dimension. Our best bet is to allow Israel to deal with Iran by pre-emptively eliminating their nuclear weapons program in the same manner they eliminated Saddam Husseins in the 1980s. Waiting for them to complete the program will result in tens of thousands more deaths.