Current Events

The best

The best possible scenario I can imagine is that Iran builds  the nuclear bomb and then very shortly after that Iran becomes a secular democracy.

Typical Beltway Strategist Talk ...devoid of reality ...

You see them everyday, these "arm chair strategists" who live in their comfortable air conditioned homes in Virginia or Maryland ... taking in 6 figure salaries ....who make all kinds of proclamations without any real knowledge on the ground.

She'll talk about Nuclear bomb one second, and then run off in a panic (as if a bomb has gone off in Washington) to get to a day care to pick up her children from her second or third husband!!?? She's actually more worried how she'll cover her credit card bills and mortgage than what is actually happening in Iran or Pakistan.

She has no business having an opinion and getting paid for it. If she walked the streets of Iran or talked to ordinary Iranians ... and understood what is really going on behind the scenes in the West....she would really have some real perspective on this issue. The sad thing is these types of dudes have opinions that some people listen to and end up costing thousands maybe millions of people their lives or livelihoods.

The nuclear issue with Iran is completely smeared with Western hypocracy and poor strategic choices. Its very clear to me - the issue is the regime NOT Iran's nuclear capability. And until they deal with that - we'll all be inside political theatre with a merry go round ...

It is in fact the case that the U.S. can and likely will live with a nuclear Iran - under the right set of circumstances, it would be of tremendous strategic value for Iran to actually have the bomb (and it would NOT be a threat to the U.S.). Just like Pakistan has one now (given to them by the U.S.).

Who are they fooling?

If IRI becomes a nuclear power ….

Clearly is not a concern by advocates such as Danielle Pletka if they use it, it becomes a problem if they don’t and they clearly know that IRI has no intention of using it, should they ever possess it.  IRI is not any more religious fundamentalist than Israel or any more criminal than Stalin or Moa.

   The problem will be when US will have no free hand to use all-option-on-the-table card any more which means it is not just your balls in my fist any more, you got mine too. 

Sadly, as JJ correctly said, the main loser will be the Iranian people no matter which ever it goes.  Unless and the only way for the Iranian people to come ahead, is for the Iranian people to take IRI by their balls in the  fist and give it a good squeeze till they say no-more-please and by that take charge of their own affairs.

'Hambastegi' is the main key to victory 

Mehrdad

The nuclear differentiating factor is the Eman Zaman!

You see, unlike the current shiat islamist rulers of Iran,  the godless chinese or russian communists, know and knew darn well that in the case of a nuclear war with americans, there would be no supernatural help coming their way in the form of  Mehdi, the missing 12th shiat emam. .....

"Personal business must yield to collective interest."

Only for VPK. If you are not VPK, please STOP in here:)

Serious: Isn't an "effective interrogation" a torture?

p.s. not serious: BTW, let's talk about the charge later:)  I am sorry that I couldn't stop myself to p.s. in here. 

"It's not about what we believe. It's more about how we behave and influence." Comments

Re: I'm not a big fan of torture.

This thing  "Danielle Pletka"ever heard of  "Sodium Pentothal" or better wine? There are more effective ways to get the truth out of a person than torture. The problem with NeoCon is they are psychopaths.

Otherwise "in vino veritas" and a million other ways to coax a person into speaking. Torture is an ineffective means because people say anything to stop it. The most effective interrogator never used violence.

//www.amazon.com/Interrogator-Joachim-Luftwaf...

//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Scharff#The_Int...

Welcome to Club Med!

"I'm not a big fan of torture. Unfortunately, there are times in war when it is necessary to do things in a way that is absolutely and completely abhorrent to most good, decent people. I don't want to say that the United States has engaged routinely in such practices, because I don't think that it is routine by any standard. But that said, if it is absolutely imperative to find something out at that moment, then it is imperative to find something out at that moment, and Club Med is not the place to do it."

Danielle Pletka, BBC via wiki

"It's not about what we believe. It's more about how we behave and influence." Comments

The argument is

religious fundamentalists are more insane than Marxists. It is not my argument but it is what the IRI nuclear opponents put forward. The other argument is that they are incompetent more so than Soviet or Chinese.

However I agree that our biggest problem is the religious oppression. Remove it and all other problems vanish. But if you believe some on IC West has no intention of doing so. In fact wants to increase it.

No-problem is a problem

The problem is that the Islamic Republic is dominated by lunatics who are not any worse than lunatics than ran the Soviet Union or Maoist China and yet analysts like Pletka suggest that a nuclear Islamic Republic would be an intolerable threat to humanity.

For Iranians, the problem is religious oppression, it's economic stagnation and uncertainty, corruption, lack of opportunities, international isolation. It's a theocratic police state. Nuclear power -- or weapons -- is not on people's worst-things-in-the-world list. That's your problem.

If Iran is bombed, which looks like that's where the crisis is heading after sanctions fail, the miseries under this brutal regime will multiply for the Iranian people. So will it for you. That's the problem.