rfidler
Good question ,especially when one considers Chinese influence in the matter.

Samson:
“Exxon makes big money from Iran’s “oil and gas sector””

Back that up with stats please.

American needs to withdraw its military forces in the mideast and cease the provocative, imperialist diplomacy that has defined and demonized the U.S. in the eyes of the world since the end of WWII.

We have squandered too much wealth on violence.

MarthaA: Thanks for bringing in that old “triumphant exceptionalism” thing again.  What gets me is how come these liberals commenting here don’t seem to see the connection between the recent meager nuclear agreement with Russia (after decades of doing absolutely nothing) and taking a first step back from the “exceptionalism” nonsense. It is a tacit acknowledgement of the fact that American isolationism has been based almost entirely on ideas of American “supremacy” and that “supremacy” entitles us to destroy the world if push comes to shove. It’s a very welcome (if subtle) acknowledgement that in a world of nuclear weapons, claims of “exceptionalism” and “supremacy” mean nothing whatsoever

The United States invokes the triumphant exceptionalism privilege, which isn’t allowed by other countries who are not allied to the United States.  Therefore, the United States has the privilege to explore nuclear energy, while other non allied countries are not privileged with triumphant exceptionalism.

Good comments overall.The Radio Station that Samson
is alluding to is in the city of Gliwice .The name of the Operation reads roughly as ‘Canned Goods’ ,the radio tower is still standing and I believe it’s the tallest radio tower in the world made of Wood .

I am sick and disgusted everytime i hear this whole circus show from the so called countries namely USA,Britain,France and Germany shouting Armaggedon about Iran’s (A NPT signatory country)nuclear program,while as i am writing this,netanyahu cancelled his trip to washington for the nuclear summit as not to face the few arab countries demanding why Israel is not a NPT member state.How long will decent human beings on this earth stand by while Israel continues to piss in the face of the international community?

Samson, excellent analysis. I guess you could make a comparison here with Hitler’s drive to war with Russia on messianic grounds. Hitler discussed with his inner circle his belief that he would lead the Aryan chariot of civilization against the dark forces of Bolshevism in a showdown he believed began with the French Revolution. From what we know from inside sources, Netanyahu appears to also feel some sort of historic calling to slay the Islamic dragon.

dear Commune ....

Right time, but wrong analogy.

Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union were technically allies, or at least friends, when Germany attacked.  Hitler and Stalin had signed their ‘non-aggression’ pact when they had divided up Poland between them in ‘39.  This was still in force when the Germans attacked, mainly due to Hitler’s growing paranoia that Stalin would attack him first. 

Of course, Germany did prepare for such a major war for months in advance, but it was largely done as secretly as possible while Hitler still pretended that it was honoring their pact.

The better analogy is Hitler’s string of conquests before then.  Specifically Czechoslovakia and Poland.  In those, Hitler used negotiating techniques remarkably similar to those used by Bush and Obama.  Hitler made wild claims of damages and insults done to Germany and demanded resolution to these claims. 

Any attempts to really negotiate peacefully with Hitler were rejected by Hitler, and any olive branch would be met with more hostility and bluster designed to inflame and force a crisis instead of resolving the crisis. 

With the Czech crisis, when Hitler’s self-imposed deadlines for the negotiations to deal with the crisis he created were drawing near, Hitler massed troops on the border to threaten.  With Poland, Hitler staged a phony provocation where he killed some of his concentration camp prisoners then dressed them in Polish uniforms near a radio station near the border and claimed an attack which he was forced to meet with entire mass of the German army which was fortunately stationed right on the Poland border when the Poles dared their provocation.

This sounds much more like US “negotiations” that always seem to force a crisis and never seem to mean actually sitting down and resolving a problem, and where any offer from the other side is always rejected and deemed inadequate if not insulting.  This followed by massing of military might to either force the other side to give in or with a general willingness to unleash a horrible war upon the world.

Gerard laid out some very sensible ideas in his first comment, if anyone was really interested in ‘resolving’ this crisis.  The fact that none are ever really followed up on are even discussed publicly shows how little interest there is in ‘resolving’ this.

Both corporate parties love this as the sort of ‘issue’ that rallies the sheeple and tries to make everyone forget that wall street has stolen all the money and sold all the jobs off overseas.  And its instrumental in justifying large defense budgets, large intelligence budgets.  Its almost the entire justification for ‘missile defense’ and the only justification for putting such a system in Europe. 

And of course, all the right people in DC just love a good little war.  They’ve obviously gotten bored with all the wars they’ve already got up in their room and are crying for a shiny new war that they just have to have or else we’ll all be doomed.  Doomed I say. Doomed.

Isn’t it strange how all wars are justified by saying us poor citizens will be doomed to die if we don’t have the war, when its really the actual having the war the dooms the citizens of the era.

Exxon makes big money from Iran’s “oil and gas sector”, so you can bet that Iran’s “oil and gas sector” will not face any sanctions anytime soon.

Of course, if anyone was serious about using sanctions to really change what Iran was doing, then Iran’s “oil and gas sector” would be exactly what you would target with sanctions.

Take note when they show you the real priorities.  For instance, now you know that despite all the talk about how we are in mortal peril and the world could face catastrophe from Iran’s mythical nuclear weapons, the powers that be do not think its worth impacting Exxon’s profits to do anything about it.

Dangerous times. Imperialism or Israeli radicals appear to be planning war on Iran the way Nazi Germany prepped for invading the Soviet Union.

I am all for a “nuclear free world”.

First, I do not think Iran would ever attack anyone with nuclear weapons. This is because they know that the ones they attack, also have them and would reciprocate.

Second, as a Jewish Israeli, I do not understand why all attention is directed to Iran and their nuclear program, all the while Israel is becoming more radical and fundamental. The Netanyahu government are just a bunch of low-life criminals, bullying the world into what they want.
I think it is dangerous that our zealot government has control over an entire arsenal of nuclear weapons - but it doesn’t seem to bother the International community.
Why is nobody mentioning the Israeli nuclear program?

Well, there are at least 2 countries that the god almighty united
states of corporations can’t threaten into believing and acting
upon Iran as having nuclear weapons, and once again, let us
hear from Scott Ritter on the matter.

I do notice one thing about all the nuclear weapons reductions
with usa and russia, all the other finanical concerns facing this
nation are still spiraling headlong into collapse, while a nuke
treaty on reduction is the ‘issue de jour’ being fed into the
campaign for o’s 2012 quest to get re-elected so the financial
matters are of little concern, meaning the number and intensity
of all the crises on-going have everything to do with people
being overwhelmed and less capable in trying to sort them all
out that far too many just give up and don’t care anymore,
compliments of the MSM.

Hell, as much as I abhor using nuclear energy for what ever
reasons, Iran has signed the NPT while its antagonists HAVE
NOT, thus if Iran wants to poison the future with radioactive
decay lasting:

Summary of Uranium Isotopes
Uranium-238         4.46 billion
Uranium-235         704 million
Uranium-234         245,000

Plutonium
Pu-238 - 87.74 years
Pu-239 - 24065 years
Pu-240 - 6537 years
Pu-241 - 14.4 years
Pu-242 - 3.76E5 years
Pu-243 - 4.956 hours
Pu-244 - 8.26E7 years

then let them as all the other countries using nuclear energy are
on the table doing it. Besides, who amongst these current card
carrying nuclear nations are going to tell the truth about their
programs especially the ones with weapons programs.

Suggestion:  Sell Iran nuclear isotopes for medical use at a price cheaper than they could tool up to make their own.  At the same time indicate strongly that the recent agreement between Russia and U.S. on reducing nuclear weapons is a first step toward complete elimination of nuclear weapons, with more agreements to come in the near future.  Hold some other kind of incentive up for them so they can get their extreme nationalists off their backs,  Do nothing to injure over-sensitive pride, stimulate envy or make them “lose face.”  All cheaper than
permitting further proliferation or threatening war, retaliation etc. etc.  Be smart. Be cool. Time to take a deep breath and reverse the “American dominance” song-and-dance.  It’s exhausted itself.
MHO.