Iran: Nuts With Nukes

[democratic]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/19/opinion/19KRIS.html?ex=1085544000&en=cd763fa471814068&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
NY Times
Published: May 19, 2004

There is one force that could rescue Iran's hard-line ayatollahs from the dustbin of history: us.

For all its denials, Iran seems to be pushing for nuclear warheads and for missiles to carry them. It could make its first weapon in two years, and it could eventually produce enough enriched uranium at Natanz for 25 weapons a year.

"We love America," a businessman named Mansour Jahanbakhsa told me in a typical comment during my visit this month to Iran, but he added that Iran should develop nuclear weapons. "Iranians would become angry at meddling by America," he said, and his demeanor changed. "We are an old country with an ancient civilization, and we are proud of it. How come Israel can have them and we can't? It makes me angry."

A young woman, Maryan Nazeri, complained about the regime but said she would support it in a confrontation over nuclear weapons. "We're going to have them," she said. "Maybe we do already. It's our right. We're Iranians, so what do you expect? Just as you want America to be strong, we want Iran to be strong."

Then Massoud Taheri scolded: "Your president calling us a rogue nation and disrespecting our 5,000 years of civilization is offensive. How many years of civilization do you have?"

The only alternative is engagement — the precise opposite of the sanctions and isolation that have been U.S. policy under both Presidents Clinton and Bush. Sanctions are even less effective against Iran than against, say, North Korea, because Iran oozes petroleum and is independently wealthy. Isolation by the U.S. has accomplished even less in Iran than it has in Cuba.

So we should vigorously pursue a "grand bargain" in which, among other elements, Iran maintains its freeze on uranium enrichment and we establish diplomatic relations and encourage business investment, tourism and education exchanges.

"What would destroy the conservatives would be a money flood" of American investment, says Hooshang Amirahmadi, the president of the American Iranian Council. "In just a few years, the conservatives would be finished."

The bottom line is that we could soon have a pro-American Islamic democracy as a beacon for hope in the Middle East — in Tehran, not Baghdad. The risk is that we'll blow it.

[Hornito]

1. The headline could just as well read: U.S.: Nuts With Nukes

Does any rational person on this planet feel comfortable with Bush, Cheney, and the neocons, having control of OUR nuclear arsenal? Does any rational person feel good about Sharon and his Israeli Likudnazis having control over hundreds of nuclear weapons? Does anyone feel good that Pakistan has missiles that could reach the U.S. and Israel?

The stunning hypocrisy that is the nuclear weapons debate, will always be so, until ALL such weapons are banned, in ALL countries.

[gottaB]

2. I don't have flash installed

is the special feature anything?