Iran

[Richard]

OK, here's something interesting.

As we all know, Iran is one of the three members in the "axis of evil". The Bush Administration are critisizing Iran for supposedly "trying" to produce nuclear weapons by building a powerplant which the Iranians say, is for civilian use as a power source. Now, it's odd for Iran to do this as they are number 3 or 4 in terms of oil reserves behind Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and maybe Russia. So much oil, why need nuclear power?
OK, Iran now condemns terrorism, President Khatami with a lot of public support is looking to improve ties with America. Unfortunately the Ayatollahs are stifling this. Iran denounced 9-11 and sent condolences to the US, Iran also sent condolences to the US after the Columbia disaster. With this in mind, does Iran deserve to be a bad guy?

But then we have North Korea. They have nukes, they have the missiles which could hit neighbors, and they are developing one that could hit LA. Right, shouldnt the US Government be more concerned about them? Yet they seem to be ignoring N. Korea right now.

Odd isn't it?

What are your views?

[aerpix]

Okay, not all over again. North Korea has not harmed any American in the past decade or so, and has no reason to send any missile towards LA, unless it is put under pressure.

Iran is undergoing fundamental changes, and now deserve at least a little bit of trust. There is no axis of the evil, this is a term invented by the USA, and includes all countries that the USA think are involved in one or the other way against them. I wait for Germany, France, Russia and China to be included into the axis of evil, for their saying no to war.

It is understandable that now, as the USA are engaged in Iran, North Korea must come second.

Regards,
Peter

[raldrich]

okay sports fans, the U.S. is still very concerned about N. Korea, and there are still bombers assigned in guam ready for deployment to N. Korea. Tensions are high as N. and S. Korea both stepped away from the bargaining table, and both nations are on high states of alert.

As for Iran, they have a long way to go politically, as many Americans haven't forgotton the embassy hostage situation in 1979, and essentially their government hasn't changed much since, even after the death of Ayatollah Khomeni. However, Irans help in the last Gulf war has earned them a few nods, and they are making progress toward turning their nation around, and the post-Khomeni government has taken large steps to seperate themselves from terrorist involvement. Also of note, since it was brought up in an earlier thread, Moammar Khadafi has even begun to change his tune, as he has handed over (albeit reluctantly) terrorists to the world community, but then again he personally felt the wrath of the U.S. Air Force back in 1986. Syria has also begun to change it's policies on terrorism, and is making a great deal of progress.

In my opinion, the largest terrorist/WMD threats, after Iraq, come from N. Korea, the lower Arabian peninsula, and sub-saharan Africa, as well as possibly Indonesia (although I am not very current in SE Asian/Polynesian affairs.. not my area of study)