[My friend, the television news journalist in Tampa who ask me about Obama, Israel and 2012 US Presidential Elections, has spawned the following:]
What are your thoughts on Iran? Are they for real? What are your thoughts on the US role in that dilemma?
In short, the threat from Iran freaks Israelis out (though not me – as I have an unhealthy ability to compartmentalize).
The right question is not "Are they for real?" -- nobody will be able to answer this question with certainty if they do/will have nuclear warhead capabilities.
The question is: "Can Iran be trusted to act responsibly with nuclear weapons?"
1. Is Iran currently satisfied to have sovereignty over its own borders or does it believe it is justified to extend its reach beyond its borders? (recent arrests in Thailand and India give some answer to that, so does its financing and arming of Hezbullah, Hamas and Syria). The Iranians are the prime suspect in the JCC bombing in Buenos Aires in 1994, too, amongst other international terrorism crimes...
2. Does Iran's current leadership deal rationally and fairly with its own citizens who disagree with its policies? If not, it is reasonable to believe that it will deal far worse with those who they deem its enemies, yes?
3. Regarding making a case against a suspected murderer, three terms are mentioned: means, motive, and opportunity.
We know Iran has the motivation -- both its political head (Ahmadinejad) and its Islamic religious head (Khamenei) have spoken publicly about the desire to eliminate the State of Israel (the little devil) and the United States (the big devil).
Means and Opportunity are one-in-the-same as soon as Iran has nuclear warhead capabilities as it currently has the means and opportunity to deliver an indefensible missile strike on Israel and other U.S. Interests.
4. Do we have reason to trust that Iran is not intent on creating nuclear warheads, rather, just using nuclear energy for its domestic energy needs? (Reminder: Iran sits on one of the largest crude oil reserves in the world).
Has Iran been forthcoming in allowing inspector/observers to see the current uranium enrichment production in order to determine the intended use of the uranium?
Question: If, during the Cold War, Cuba (i.e., USSR offshore) were known to be enriching uranium and had publicly espoused an attack on the U.S., would the citizens and government of the U.S. hesitate to prevent those weapons from being developed?
That is, if Cuba were a modern day satellite of Iran would there be reason enough for U.S. to obstruct/intervene in the development of enriched uranium?
The duplicity of Western world leadership on this matter is farcical and...despicable.
Do I think Israel should attack Iran? No.
I think the international community (IC) needs to sanction Iran to the point of impotence. If the IC won't do that -- then I do believe Israel should do whatever it evaluates it needs to do to protect itself and the U.S. should be its partner in doing it.
