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Old 03-20-2008, 09:54 AM   #13
Iowa_Flames_Fan
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I think we'd be wise not to overstate the Iran/Iraq comparison. It was never very likely that Iraq had vast stores of dangerous WMDs lying around after years and years of sanctions, U.N. inspections that turned up nothing, and the complete cluster-you-know-what that was Saddam's government. Hindsight may be 20/20--but in hindsight it seems very obvious that WMDs were never a legitimate rationale.

Iran is a bit of a different story, IMO. They have more money, a bigger military, a more stable government and a more apocalyptic view (at least among the religious elite) of their relationship with America. Nukes in those hands would be a very scary thing indeed. It's unfortunate that the U.S. has used up both its military might and its international credibility in Iraq--because both are things that might well come in handy now. I'm not going to lie--Iran scares the hell out of me. That's not to say that a war is a fantastic idea--there's pretty much no way the depleted U.S. military can pose much of a threat to Iran right now, especially if they have nuclear weapons, or are close to having them.

Conversely, Iran probably doesn't want a piece of the U.S. either. Maybe the solution is somewhere in between--an embargo paired with targeted strikes at suspected nuclear facilities? I don't know--I sort of feel like Bush has used up all the good options, and the only options left are bad ones.
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