There was a pretty good Greenwald article on neo-con nutcase Norman Podhoretz and his ranting on the need to basically destroy Iran lest it finally builds its own nuclear weapon. While it's obvious that nutty Norman and his neocon cohorts are salivating like wolves at a veal festival for the opportunity to invade Iran, I personally can't see how they get so much traction. Follow me over the fold to see if you can help me understand the threat the Iran represents to the free world....
OK, first things first....I realize that there are some nutters over on the hardline Islamic Iranian side of the aisle that love to stone gays and whip adulterous (read "neckline exposed under veil") women, but I think these guys are no worse than our own wife-beating clinic bombers and their ilk and are probably as representative of Iran as Ted Haggard is of the US.....
..but the thing that I really have trouble grokking is the growing fear that the Iranian regime threatens the free world. There are plenty of sketchy countries with nukes...North Korea being prominent, but Pakistan is only one well aimed bullet away from a Musharaf-free Islamic state with no love for the West, but you don't see our panties in a bunch over those two countries, hell, we're actually negotiating with N Korea as I type...go figure...but the concept of the Iranian bomb seems to get everybody in a bombalicious frenzy with everybody getting stiffies over "robust penetrators" and what not...but I don't really see Iran as a threat to Middle East Security and I think we are at the height of hipocracy to be even talking any smack at all...lets peruse the old history books for bit:
Iran and Civilian Nuclear Energy: It's funny how even a cursory search will show BushCo is full of shit...check out this WashPost Article describing our slightly different views about Iran and civilian nuclear power...oh yeah, 30 years ago we were all for it...
Iran's History Of Aggression: OK, real quick, name the countries that the US invaded in your lifetime, now name the ones that Iran invaded...So for the US, I have Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Iraq v1 and finally Iraq v2. For Iran, I have absolutely nothing..the only war in my lifetime involving Iran was the time Iraq invaded them with all the blessings of the US, and Iran fought back like any country should do (although that whole "human wave" strategy is kind of scary, but I guess you'll fight to the end to defend your homeland, I'm sure I would...)
Iran's Meddling in the Affairs of its Neighbors: I don't even know where to start with that..let's see, the US helped support a coup that overthrew a democratically elected leader and we gave them the Shah, who was about as nasty a bastard as you could hope for, and consequently the people reacted to his brutally repressive pro-Western regime with a equally weird anti-Western Theocratic regime, but through the 90's that regime loosened it's grip and Iran was modernizing (my English buddy who visited Tehran recently had nothing but good things to say), but then BushCo had to step in with the "Axis of Evil" crap and that gave all the local anti-Western creeps all the fuel the needed to build a fire of nationalism which burnt out the moderate secular types and brought in everybody's favorite Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. So as far as I'm concerned, it's par for the course to stick your noses in your neighbor's business, whether it's funding groups that your neighbors consider terrorists (they fund Hamas, we fund the NCRI and the PKK). OK, this is kind of fucked up, but everybody's doing it, it's all the rage....
The Iranian Threat to Israel: If Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's opinions represent Iran, I'd guess it's fair to say that James Dobson or Jerry Falwell represents the US. They are all loud-mouth demagogues who really don't call the shots (although Dobson probably has more influence on Bush than Ahmadinejad has on the mullahs). These are all just power-hungry types pandering to fearmongering in order to gain support...and we play right into their hands... I think the mullahs are well aware that Israel would flatten Iran if they actually initiated an attack..hence the fact they have not attacked to date....
So in my world view, I can't see how Iran is a threat to us and can't get my head around all the pro-invasion talk. We know the backlash from fighting Iran will put the world oil economy into turmoil. We know that the rationales for invasion are skimpy, but I feel like sanity is no longer in control of the situation...So tell me if I'm way off base, or is Operation Iranian Freedom starting to irreversibly gear up....