My thoughts on Iran

So, over at “The Atheist Mama” there is a discussion on how we should deal with Iran and their “nuclear capabilities”. I chimed in that we should just leave Iran the hell alone. Are you wondering why? Because Iran has no nuclear capablities right now. And we need to clean up other messes that we started before diving into more. According to “Bulletin of Atomic Scientists“:

Despite the U.S. government’s fears, the president’s “WMD Commission” concluded that U.S. intelligence knows “disturbingly little” about Iran. And in August, the Washington Post reported that a new U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) projects that Iran is about 10 years from having the capability of making nuclear weapons–double the time predicted by earlier estimates.

The new NIE, if correct, provides more time for active engagement. The United States and other international partners should seize the opportunity to work closely with Tehran to ensure that its nuclear program complies with the most rigorous safeguards while preserving its right to perform peaceful nuclear activities. Close involvement also can serve as an important source of data on Iranian nuclear activities and can act as a reality check on U.S. intelligence community estimates.

Such collaboration would open interesting avenues to shape the development of Iran’s nuclear program in a positive manner. In the near term, the United States could work with the nuclear industry to provide a steady supply of fresh fuel to Iran through direct contracts with individual companies or through a multinational consortium. (Such a “fuel bank” was recently proposed at an international conference in Moscow.) In parallel to the provision of guaranteed fresh fuel as needed, Iran would implement part of its own proposed agreement with the European Union to restrict the number of enrichment centrifuges it operates for research purposes.

Now some people think that we need to nip this shit in the bud because we can’t have our enemies in possession of nuclear weapons. Ok, then lets hit the ones that already have those weapons, namely North Korea. No? Why not? Oh, yeah, I forgot, China has nuclear weapons too and they’d kick our collective asses if we messed with N. Korea. Better leave them alone.

Lets see this impending conflict with Iran for what it is, an election year stunt. This is just another way to keep fear in the hearts of Americans and pressuring them to vote for the party that will keep us safer. Right now Americans don’t think of North Koreans as “scary”, but Middle Eastern Muslims are terrifying. So it makes complete sense that we’d put the pressure on the “rag heads”. The problem, in my opinion, is that pressuring Iran is just making the problem worse.

Does that mean that I think that Iran should have nuclear weapons? Absolutely not. I don’t think that any country on earth should have nuclear weapons, including us. It’s scary to think of Islamic fundamental fanatics with their fingers on “the button”, but it’s just as scary to have Christian fundament fanatics with their fingers on it. I mean, the radical Christians are eagerly awaiting the end of the world (aka “The Rapture”) so that Christ can come down, sweep them all to Heaven, and the rest of can sit down here and suffer eternal torment_[1].

Nuclear weapons serve no real purpose except in the sense that men in power can say “Mine is bigger than yours”. It only takes one mad man to end humanity and I’d prefer he didn’t have the capability to do that right now.

_{[1] Like my friend, Walrus, said “I wish it would come already so the rest of us can get on with our lives.”}