[lit-ideas] Ought we to do something about Iran?
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2006 14:48:32 -0800
The United States developed, built and used atomic weapons at the end of
World War II. For reasons no longer clear to me, Leftists in our scientific
community decided the world would be safer if the Soviet Union also had
these weapons and so sent them the information on how to build them. I
don't recall who got them next. Presumably we told Britain how to build
them. Perhaps the French built theirs on their own. I suspect the Israelis
did. I believe the Indians and Pakistanis did as well.
I don't know whether the North Koreans built their own or were helped by the
Chinese. If the latter, that could explain why the Chinese are dragging
their feet in doing something about the North Koreans. I notice that South
Korea has informed the U.S. that it is opposed to "regime change" in North
Korea. But then we expected that. Eventually the North and South will be
put back together again and the South would be delighted if the North
brought them nuclear power.
The Russians and French were helping Iraq build nuclear weapons at one time,
but the Israelis bombed their factory and Saddam never managed to build
them.
Iran according to Ilan Berman, Tehran Rising, 2005, is being helped in this
regard by Russia, China and France. These three nations obviously have no
problem with Iran becoming a nuclear power; so should we? Berman and others
I've read on this subject would answer in the affirmative. Berman cites
case after case of Iranian terrorist activity, much of it against the U.S.,
and it is much better financed than Al Quaeda. Iran has also, according to
Berman, been sharing their nuclear knowledge with Syria, Saudi Arabia, and
one or two other nations. Also, the Iranian government, the people in
power, seems not to have backed off from Khomeini's announced war against
the U.S.
In Bush's State of the Union, he seemed to be content to let the EU and UN
continue to try to deal with Iran, but does anyone think that will really
work?
So should we do something about Iran? And if the answer is "yes," what
should we do?
Lawrence
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