Here's a radical thought - why not try a peaceful approach to Iran?

[BushOut06]

Why does everything have to involve saber-rattling and threats? Why not try to improve the situation in Iran by encouraging the moderate elements in that country, to implement "regime change" from within - and not trying to start WWIII in the process? The Russians and Chinese seem to have this figured out, why can't we?

Do you think that maybe if we actually tried working with these people, and not threatening them all the time, that it might be possible to get what we want in the long run?

[henslee]

1. You are no patriot....

:P

[The Whiskey Priest]

2. When a society becomes militaristic

The solution of every problem is the barrel of a gun.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

3. Hello? Did you never play cowboy when you were a kid?

That is not how the game is played. You always go in with both guns blazing and walk away with the pretty girl, or in this case oil.

Sadly, bush* still has the mentality of a five year old.

[BushOut06]

4. All the time - but then I grew up

Although I still play shoot-em-ups on the Xbox, but at least I know that Sam Fisher and MasterChief aren't real, and that you can't bring back dead Americans by simply hitting "restart level".

[Deja Q]

5. I like what you have to say, but

How do you convince a bunch of uber-religious crazies to work and come to a compromise with you?

BTW: The Russians had been selling weapons to Iran for YEARS, as recent as mid~late 2005. I doubt they see anything 'peaceful solution' either.

[BushOut06]

6. Russia seems to be doing a decent job

As bad and crazy as they seem to be, Russia seems to have a somewhat calming influence on them. I have no doubt this crisis would have been much worse without Russia's involvement. It's amazing what open dialouge and economic relations can do to help improve things!

[ComerPerro]

7. Republicans have been poisoning the well for five years now

Lowering the bar to the point that much of the nation is convinced that failure is success.

"Sure, Bush and the GOP are corrupt, but all politicians are corrupt"

"Yeah, the war isn't going so great, but Bush did the best he could and no one could have really done better"


And they have done the same thing with diplomacy.

"Diplomatic measures didn't work with Iraq. Diplomacy just doesn't work. You gotta be tough"


What people need to realize is that diplomacy can work.

Their failure to prevent war with Saddam and Iraq wasn't a failure for diplomacy. It was a failure of the Bush Administration.

They aren't interested in diplomacy, so they have made sure to see that no one even considers it as an option.

[Nutmegger]

8. We want to control and you can't control by playing nicely. n-t

[Village Idiot]

9. Iran is a sticky wicket.

I think you must ask yourself first: "Do we want Iran to have the potential to build a nuclear arsenal?"

Then: "If Iran had the ability and potential to build nuclear weapons, would they do so?"

Or: "Does ANY counrty have the RIGHT to build nuclear weapons?"

Perhaps: "Does Iran believe that Israel is a nuclear threat of sufficient stature that they would need to build a nuclear arsenal."

Face it - with the exception of Canada (which would get nuked off the face of the earth if they ever THOUGHT of building a bomb), I cannot think of a single nation (but I've never researched it) that has achieved nuclear energy and has not gone on to build a nuclear arsenal.

[BushOut06]

11. Wrong - plenty of countries produce nuclear energy

"Today, only eight countries are known to have a nuclear weapons capability. By contrast, 56 operate civil research reactors, and 31 have some 440 commercial nuclear power reactors with a total installed capacity of over 360 000 MWe (see table). This is more than three times the total generating capacity of France or Germany from all sources. Some 30 further power reactors are under construction, equivalent to 6% of existing capacity, while about 35 are firmly planned, equivalent to 10% of present capacity."


http://www.uic.com.au/nip07.htm
http://www.uic.com.au/reactors.htm

[Village Idiot]

12. WOW! Thanks for the info. This is why I inserted the caveat.

I was hitherto unaware of this information. Strange chart - I don't understand the significance of the thickness of the bars - where's Israel? - do they NOT produce enegy, as well as nuclear weapons? Are the other countries in the ME completely without nuclear energy, or is their contribution to the world's supply too small to consider for the purposes of the chart?

Still...There aren't too many others, really, given that many of the former Soviet Bloc countries in your chart USED to have nukes before turning them over to Russia in the dissolution of the USSR...and some of the others developed nukes either at the same time or even before generating nuclear power...

Not that this settles my mind, however, given the nature of Ahmadinajad's rhetoric of late.

Then again, he only rules with support and approval of the imams and mullahs...If he did not pause and condemn Israel every couple of weeks, he probably wouldn't stay in power (or perhaps on this earth, for that matter) very long...

[H2O Man]

10. General Wesley Clark

has pointed out that thus far, the USA has not spoken to Iran. There is no good reason for not attempting direct communication. In the Cuban missile crisis, direct communication helped to keep events from escalating out of control.