Iran 'frightens me,' Canadian PM Harper says

[Newsjock]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/01/17/pol-harper-iran.html

It's beyond dispute Iran is developing nuclear weapons and lying about it, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told CBC News chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge on Monday.

In an exclusive interview, Harper says the evidence, some from the International Atomic Energy Agency, is overwhelming that Iran has a nuclear weapons program.

... "I’ve watched and listened to what the leadership in the Iranian regime says, and it frightens me.

"In my judgment, these are people who have a particular, you know, a fanatically religious worldview, and their statements imply to me no hesitation about using nuclear weapons if they see them achieving their religious or political purposes. And … I think that’s what makes this regime in Iran particularly dangerous."

[teddy51]

1. Harper scares me much more than Iran does! n/t

[RKP5637]

3. +1000 +++

[PDJane]

7. No kidding.......the man's repugnant.

a born-again racist. He just hides it better than most.

[rbixby]

2. Why do we care if they have nukes or not again? NT

[EX500rider]

31. "Why do we care if they have nukes or not again?"

Because then Saudi Arabia will have to have nukes, followed by Egypt, the Gulf States and the rest of Iran's neighbors.

[polly7]

4. Harper ..... a disingenuous, snivelling POS.

[DeathToTheOil]

32. Bingo!

Though it pains me to be agreeing with a Leafs fan.

[quinnox]

5. I'm scared too

Every morning, I look under my bed for any terrorists or nukes that may have sneaked in.

[RKP5637]

9. Yep, be careful poking around in the yard too, might be under a rock, an

unused garbage can lid, a clump of grass or behind some rock. Yep, we always gotta be afraid. I even look behind the pictures in my house each day, no telling where they're hiding ... or maybe my cat dragged one in ...

[Cali_Democrat]

6. Iran frightens him? It's America that should frighten him.

Iran hasn't been starting war after war for decades. Also, what about Israel's nukes? That should scare the daylights out of him.

[PDJane]

8. ++++++!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

27. But..but..America would never, ever, actuall use such horrific weapons against civilians...oh, wait.

[Spazito]

10. Yep, there goes the baby bush wannabe...

Ratchet up the 'fear', 'be afraid, be very afraid', 'the terraists are comin' to git ya'.

He is so disgusting. Less than 40% of voters put this sniveling POS in power, pathetic.

[redqueen]

11. Yep.

How convenient for the MIC that they have another cheerleader now.

[Spazito]

13. Yes, he and his party are neocon north...

Rah, rah the MIC, protect the corporations, privatize everything. 60% of Canadian voters voted AGAINST this POS and his party yet here we are with the "Harper Government" in total control with no constraints.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

12. Did you all notice how the U.S. began out of the blue to invent bullshit against Iran just as it did

with Iraq?

Suddenly Iraq is public enemy #1.

I'm not in love with Iraq. The way women are treated there makes me puke, but there are plenty of countries with nukes that are not exactly the friendliest to us. However, it looks like the U.S. is wanting regime change now. It didn't before. It was busy doing regime change elsewhere. Now it's Iran's turn.

Sickening.

[quinnox]

14. Just wait until something conveniently happens

Wouldn't surprise me to see a false flag operation done, and then blaming it on Iran. "Well, lookie here, we are now forced to go to war with Iran!"

And most of the whole country will go along with it like sheep. It wouldn't even cross their mind it was a set up.

To those who think this sounds like some kind of conspiracy theory:
look up false flag operations in Wikipedia, they are a cold reality in history.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

16. Do you think regime change in Iran would be a good or a bad thing? N.T.

[RKP5637]

18. Yep, it's a replay of the same old sh** again, following the playbook line

by line. We've become an aggressor nation, not a peacekeeping nation. And it's because of $$$ and predatory capitalism.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

15. On this specific issue, Harper is quite right and his critics are ostriches.

Harper is quite right that it seems very likely indeed that Iran is trying to get to a position from which it will be able to rapidly construct nuclear weapons.

He is also quite right that this would be a very bad and frightening thing, both in itself and because it would increase Iran's influence in the middle east.

A lot of DUers seem to think that just because right-wingers adopt a position, they must adopt the opposite position. That's letting other people dictate your thinking as much as automatically agreeing with them is.




P.S. No, none of this justifies starting a war with Iran; don't waste time accusing me of supporting one.

[polly7]

17. Why would it necessarily be a bad thing, any more than Israel, or U.S., or anyone else's posesession

of nukes? I absolutely hate the thought of them anywhere, but it's clear from recent history that nations who've downgraded their military or haven't kept up with the race for nukes like the others (the good guys), are at considerable risk. The thought of military attack on Iran frightens me FAR more than anything else. Russia and China have been holding war exercises with them for years in case of such an event. Harper's a simpleton if he believes Iran is the threat here. Of course, he doesn't really believe it. He's just a lying gasbag.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

21. Because the Iranian government is far worse than the Israeli or American governments, of course.

That's not just right-wing scaremongering. Iran really is run by a spectacularly wicked and repressive theocracy with a policy of funding and inciting terrorism in neighbouring states.

[polly7]

23. History shows otherwise.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

28. Profound-sounding, but not terribly informative. N.T.

[quinnox]

20. I just checked under my bed again

still no terrorists or nukes.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

22. Well, no, under the sand everything *always* looks fine. N.T.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

19. Some people are easily frightened by imaginary bogeymen.

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” H.L. Mencken

[Donald Ian Rankin]

25. Mencken, of course, was never exaggeratedly cynical for comic effect... N.T.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

26. Well, politicians trying to scare the populace are comical..in a grotesque way.

And, it's not limited to nail-biting Canadian politicians.

[ellie]

24. Then he needs to step

aside to allow someone who isn't so timid lead.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

29. Every post in this thread is rude about Harper, but almost none go as far as to say he's wrong.

The general message seems to be not that what he says isn't true, but that even though it may be true he still shouldn't say it.

This does not strike me as a good message.

[polly7]

33. LMAO

'Rude' about Harper? You have no idea what he stands for, do you?

In this case (and in most cases) Harper's message is a steaming pile of bullshit. Some of us have known that all along, but here's an excellent article posted by marmar in Good Reads. Very informative:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10168332

[Donald Ian Rankin]

34. I don't? That's news to me...

Harper is wrong about a great many things. Very few of the posts in this thread make any reference to any of them.

About this one, specific, thing, he's right, but people don't seem to like that.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

30. He should get a dog then. nt