I'm going to go out on a limb here and express mild sympathy with Iran, and a lot of sympathy for the Iranian people.

Not, I hasten to add, the stupidity of asserting that Israel has no right to exist. The sooner that bozo is executed, the better off the entire region will be. Same can be said for the Council of Guardians, an oligarchy of very conservative clerics who can veto every law passed by Iran's parliament.

Iran was working its way back into everyone's good books prior to the "axis of evil" label. A very recent edition of the New Yorker talks about how the Iranians had even offered to help the US by repatriating downed US airmen in an invasion of Iraq, and were well-advanced in diplomatic talks with the United Kingdom, which has an historic (and in the past less than honourable) interest in Iran, as well as other EU countries.

Its a no-brainer to work out that the only thing that will prevent the US invading a country is nuclear weapons. Which is why Iraq was invaded and Saddam now on trial before a court of Iraqi judges, but why North Korea can still thumb its nose and Kim is still walking around in silk pyjamas. And its why Iran wants them, badly: so the clerics will not have their faces on a deck of cards being distributed by 1st Airborne in Tehran. So who can blame Iran for wanting a nuclear weapon?

Spare a thought for the Iranian people too. The New Yorker reports there was a riot in Tehran last when the Shah's son went on Farsi-language TV broadcast from California calling for tolerance and rapport with the Us. Hundreds of people spilled onto the streets shouting "We love the US!" and calling for democracy, and all were beaten and jailed by the current regime.

You don't want to nuke people who want to be free.

Pimping my site, again.

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