Why worry about Iran getting nukes?

[King Coal]

They wouldn't dare use it. They know what would happen if they did. Why are they different that Pakistan?

[PDJane]

1. Silly man.........

They have oil, and they kicked out the US-installed Shah (installed after a democratically elected president decided that the oil should belong to Iran. Same shit, different country).

[no_hypocrisy]

2. I'm guessing . . . . because if they do, we can't steal THEIR oil????

[progressivebydesign]

3. I'm totally ignorant, but don't we have nukes?

Seriously. I keep thinking I've missed something, cuz I was pretty sure we have them, Right? So why us and not anyone else? Our leader is batshit crazy like Iran's leader, we are being driven by fundamentalist kooks, there is a lust for power and oil. So what's the big diff?

[Gregorian]

4. Pakistan actually has the enriched material for 100 bombs.

They are our biggest threat.

Funny how I fear Bush far more than anything else.

[theoldman]

5. It's the Israelis that worry about Iran having nukes.

They would no longer be the superpower in the Middle East. The would no longer have a free hand in doing whatever they wanted to do.

[pinto]

6. Or India. Good point. I think the risk, though, is Iran's marginalization

in the international community, their dual form of government - one democratic, one theocratic and the lack of real dialog with the decision makers.

There's a valid point to the widely held concept of mutual nuclear deterrence. I doubt if anyone really wants to destroy life as we know it, whatever the ideology or political framework. But it's slim, imho, and fraught with unintended consequences.

Washing machines, television and budgets brought down the Soviet monopoly in Asia and Eastern Europe as much as mutually assured destruction.

Today, the leveler may well be cell phones, internet,and...budgets.

[scarletwoman]

7. I wish they DID have nukes, right now. It would certainly cut through alot of bullshit.

As someone born in the late 40s who grew up during the Cold War, I've come to really appreciate MAD. It definitely beats the "sole superpower/we'll bomb whoever the hell we want" crap that's going on now.

sw