Why is Iran a threat to us? Why do we need to war with Iran?

[converted_democrat]

I don't believe that Iran is a threat, but many here seem to think that they are.. Will someone explain the big danger that Iran represents to us?

[Jim Sagle]

1. If we don't fight Iran just before the election, then the Democrats win.

Even with Diebold.

[spanone]

2. Cause Bush* is MOST POPULAR when we are at war.

[carolinalady]

3. They know that thanks to the Democracy Project- Iran is going

to effectively run Iraq when we are gone. They will control the oil. The US took a gamble and lost. They want to neutralize the Iranian government so they can keep the Iraqi's under our thumb. The threat which at best is several years away is the tactic for getting American people support. This time they can not lie and say they have them to scare us, so they are scaring us another way. They always leave out the part about how many years it would take and what actual weapons delivery systems they have (I have heard they do not have a very long range missile capacity.)

[TomClash]

4. Neo-con aguments

1. Iran wants to rid the ME of Israel and it could hit Israel with conventional or nuclear weapons
2. Iran supports "terror" which means Hezbollah, PIJ etc.
3. Iran is an unstable, undemocratic regime of Islamic extremists
4. Iran is a potntial threat to the "moderate" Gulf states in the Gulf(read "oil")
5. The Iranian people are oppressed by the unstable, undemocratic regime and we must free them.

[converted_democrat]

12. I still don't see what is "urgent" about any of those arguments..

1. Not for at least a few more years..
2. SA supports just as many if not more terror organizations, but I have not heard talk of us invading them.
3. The same argument could be made for much of the ME..
4. Potential threat, does not equal urgent threat.
5. The same argument could be used against the US, Russia, or China at this point, why single out Iran?

[TomClash]

22. Strategic location

Plus, the neo-cons are running out of time and the intel may be wrong about the Iranian nuclear timetable. Based on Russian reporting, Op Merlin, Israeli intel and other open source material, I suspect the Iranian nuclear train has already left the station.

However, I also suspect even Almadinejad will never use such a weapon unless Iran is invaded.

[converted_democrat]

26. Is that your argument or the Neocons?

I don't think strategic position is worth innocent Iranian lives, do you?

[TomClash]

29. It's the Neo-cons' argument

I oppose war with Iran - even if they are about to acquire nuclear capability. As I hav written before zi think that horse has already left the gate - I suspect Iran already has nuclear weapons.

[converted_democrat]

35. What makes you think that? Almost everything I've read says they're

at least 5, if not 10 years away..

[TomClash]

37. From what sources?

Read Bodansky, some Russian and Israeli analysis and foreign open source material. Israel predicted Iran would have a nuclear weapon in two years and that was over two years ago. Then there's Operation Merlin, where the US gave Iran nuclear trigger plans. And I don't believe our intel in Iran - either they are lying or they don't know as much as they claim - they've been claiming Iran was 5-10 years away from a bomb for about 5-10 years. And they were "wrong" about Iraq and North Korea.

Of course, much as I despise nuclear proliferation, I don't think Iran getting nukes means they will use nuclear weapons.

[converted_democrat]

39. Here's one..

http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Margolis_Eric/2006/01/14/1394381.html

[tjwash]

32. So, the same exact shit line for line as they said about Iraq.

:eyes:

[ThomWV]

5. Filthy Arab Bastards Who Took American Hostages

That is the picture of every person from Iran in Bush's brain.

Wanna bet?

[acmejack]

13. That would figure for *-since Iranians AREN'T Arabs!

They are Persians.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. Because politicians are more popular as "war leaders".

"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

[OneBlueSky]

7. two words . . . "oil bourse" . . . n/t

.

[stevietheman]

23. "It's the bourse, of course." n/t

n/t

[Roho]

25. oil burse = red herring

Imo designed for the "no nation building" "we don't believe your Intel" crowd.

Right now many countries are circumventing the petro dollar through bilateral trade deals. For example Chavez is trading oil with china for manufactured goods.

[BlueEyedSon]

8. "'cause ma daddy had lotso' CAPITAL when he was a war preznet."

[boobooday]

9. Got a pipeline to finish . . .

Not quite done looting yet . . . I mean . . . spreading democracy . . . that's right . . . Iran needs . . . LIBERATING!

[FloridaPat]

10. The Iranian bourse which is to start end of March. They are an

economic threat. Should oil be sold in euros instead of dollars, the US economy collapses. The dollar becomes worthless. We the People see the result of 40 years of bad government by our great leaders.

[converted_democrat]

11. I still don't think that is a justified reason.

I don't think innocent Iranian children should pay the price for our leaders mistakes.

[FloridaPat]

21. Everyone is paying the prices for our leaders mistakes.

We've invaded two countries so far based on lies. The repubs I believe have destroyed the US. They need to hold off getting caught until every last item is sold to corporations. Then they can retire in style. And we're going to get stuck with the tab. Suggest people start reading about the Great Depression of the 1920's. What's coming is going to make that look like a great time.

[hopeisaplace]

14. Why did the chicken cross the road?

cause there was oil on the other side
and
to control the road

[converted_democrat]

17. We have no right to their oil, just like we had no right to Iraq's oil.n/t

[hopeisaplace]

18. Hey I totally agree.

I'm canadian...we could be the "road" some day *bites wrist, passes out, thud*

[converted_democrat]

20. Living in this country is super frustrating these days..

I just don't understand how so many people can be so ignorant, selfish, and thoughtless.. I just don't understand it.. I grew up believing that the US was the good guys who helped others and stopped injustice.. It makes my heart sick to see what we are today..

[hopeisaplace]

28. The majority of people are good people for sure though

And today I had a flicker of hope that the media may have
actually showed up ...perhaps late...but you know the
expression :)...60 minutes was very informative I thought,
and CNN Presents is re-airing the episode on being misled
into Iraq (I think it's a re-run).

[Justitia]

15. They're not & we don't. The GOP needs "war" like oxygen. The End. -nt

[bigtree]

16. they're not

we don't

[Loge23]

19. Because we can

The neo-cons have apparently deluded themselves into thinking that they can "win" in Iran. What "win means, well, refer to Iraq for that answer.
Iran has strategic implications for the neo-con domination of oil-producing regions. That's the only motive.
Notice we never get deep with North Korea.

[stevietheman]

24. Exactly... NK has nothing for the U.S. government to steal. n/t

n/t

[bobbieinok]

27. revenge for taking hostages in 79 + emphasize 'democrats didn't/can't

protect us'

carefully forgetting Reagan did nothing vs Iran, in fact he made a deal with Iran to get $$$ for contra war against elected Nicaraguan government......all this carefully NOT siscussed by M$M

just like before in 79 there was very little if any mention of how US and Britain took out independent Iranian government in 53 and put in Shah's family.......the government under Mossadegh was going to nationalize oil companies

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/25/1534210

....

In 1953, the CIA and British intelligence orchestrated a coup d’etat that toppled the democratically elected government of Iran. The government of Mohammad Mossadegh. The aftershocks of the coup are still being felt.

In 1951 Prime Minister Mossadegh roused Britain's ire when he nationalized the oil industry. Mossadegh argued that Iran should begin profiting from its vast oil reserves which had been exclusively controlled by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The company later became known as British Petroleum (BP).

After considering military action, Britain opted for a coup d'état. President Harry Truman rejected the idea, but when Dwight Eisenhower took over the White House, he ordered the CIA to embark on one of its first covert operations against a foreign government.

The coup was led by an agent named Kermit Roosevelt, the grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt. The CIA leaned on a young, insecure Shah to issue a decree dismissing Mossadegh as prime minister. Kermit Roosevelt had help from Norman Schwarzkopf’s father: Norman Schwarzkopf.

The CIA and the British helped to undermine Mossadegh's government through bribery, libel, and orchestrated riots. Agents posing as communists threatened religious leaders, while the US ambassador lied to the prime minister about alleged attacks on American nationals.

Some 300 people died in firefights in the streets of Tehran.

more....

[megatherium]

30. We already got our revenge in spades.

We helped Iraq in the 1980s during the Iraq/Iran war. That war cost a million Iranian lives, including huge numbers of children (the Iranians used children to clear minefields).

[mwb970]

31. Apparently, it's because they hate Israel. (n/t)

[threadkillaz]

33. O-I-L B-O-U-R-S-E

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22iranian+oil+bourse%22+march+2006&btnG=Google+Search



say no mo say no mo

[tjwash]

34. You know what really bugs me?

Is that no one just comes out and says "because we want all that oil."

Hell if they said that, half the dumb mother fuckers that populate the United States would still be for attacking them. Until their draft number comes up of course, and then they would have to drag them kicking and screaming out from under their beds.

[Toots]

36. Project for a New American Century....It's part of the plan

Empire....King of the World.....Google Project for a New American Century and read their strategy...

[Just Me]

38. They threaten the U.S. multi-national oil barons.

Didn't you know that our foreign policy has been about protecting U.S. multinational corporacrats' interests over the last, oh, forty years or so?

Sorry. I didn't mean to sound demeaning.

Iran is not a threat to our physical security. It's a threat to our corporacrats' financial obesity.