And we are going to keep toppling regimes until the terrorist threat to our well being is a thing of the past. Bush is being proactive. And we're all better off because of it.
I don’t like any of those three having nukes, but of the three you mention, Iran by far represents the greatest threat if they get their hands on Islamic bombs. It’s the only one that has vowed to spread its radical version of Khomeniest Islam worldwide and the only one that has the resources to do it. Pakistan would become much more dangerous if it fell into the hands of Islamofascists. Iran is already in the hands of the Islamofascists. N. Korea is in the nuke business because enriched uranium, nuclear bombs, missiles, and drugs are its only exportable products; otherwise it is an economic basket case. Of those three countries, if Iran gets its hands on nukes, barring and internal coup overthrowing the Mullahs, there will be a much greater probability of nuclear war if Iran gets its hands on nukes. In any event, I’m not advocating a war like Iraq with Iran because I believe the Mullahs can be brought down by other means, and sooner or later will have to be because they will never accept a democracy next door in Iraq. However, we may have to act sooner than we want to if it becomes imminent that Iran is going to get nukes. If Iran gets nukes, we probably would not be able to stop Iran from sabotaging Iraq except with a permanent military presence. That would not be a very good prospect.
Again, I agree. I think the mullahs will be brought down by their own people. Over half of the Iranian population was born after the 1979 revolution. The younger generation does not share the values of the last one and are disillusioned by the conservative clerical Islamic government. They are raising demands for more jobs, better education, secular government, new housing, and social freedoms. And for democracy. The best thing we can do to encourage this change is to stay out of it. The factions would band together to contest the US, if they thought we were meddling. But left alone they will fight this one out internally in the next decade. And I think the mullahs will lose. Children of Irans Revolution Want Freedom and Jobs I think Iranian nuclear posturing is just that. They are trying to get trade sanctions removed and they need a chip to give up in return. The Iranian economy is a shambles and they know they cannot afford to be a nuclear power. Plus Russia and China would never tolerate it either, as both would be in missile range. North Korea is in the same position, but is run by a dangerously rash madman. Iran's mullahs may be religious fundamentalists, but they are not fools. Iran lost a million men in the Iran-Iraq war and they are in no military shape for another one, especially versus the US or Russia.
