nukestan

Today's USA Today has an article saying that most normal Iranians want their country to continue its nuclear program. This is claimed as if it's a surprise--like it's so out of the ordinary. I'm so sick of it. Why is it so odd to think that a country like Iran would WANT its government to pursue nuclear technology--both for energy and for weapons? Why isn't it obvious that Iranians think the US is arbitrarily bullying them?

Just this year, President Bush told India--not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty--that the US would help India out with getting fuel for its nuclear reactors. India, meanwhile, gave next-to-nothing in assurances that it would even slow down its military (i.e., weapons) program; just that it would split off its military reactors from its civilian ones. And (this is my favorite part) the civilian reactors will be open to inspection by the IAEA, but the military ones won't. Where does that get us? They admit to having military nuclear enrichment and development sites, completely separate from their civilian ones, and refuse to let inspectors in, and in exchange they get to buy nuclear fuels from the nuclear suppliers' group?!?

North Korea, by all accounts a more rogue state that Iran--and with a one-man, unelected dictatorship that oppresses its people beyond all comprehension--has dialogue with the US even though it has said, over and over again, that it has nuclear weapons and has no intention of giving them up (though who knows if this is true). Talks have been going off and on for as long as I can remember. The country has test-fired rockets that could hold nuclear warheads. But do you ever hear any talk of the US bombing NK's nuclear sites? No. No, we don't.

Meanwhile, Iran has no official diplomatic dialogue with the US. Iranians resent the US, and for good reason: backing an oppressive (and unelected) king; supporting Saddam Hussein in Iraq (politically and materially) during EIGHT YEARS of war with Iran; and maintaining a crippling trade embargo. To Iranians, it might certainly feel like they've been unfairly singled out. Who can blame them? I'm no fan of Iran's crazy-ass government and even I understand that feeling. The US's foreign policy stance on Iran sucks. It's senseless and does more harm than good. The money that the US government sets aside for "democracy promotion" in Iran just ends up discrediting the few pro-Western, pro-democracy groups that take it, leading to an ever-weaker internal resistance movement and an exile community with little or no credibility in the country. So when the Iranian government--as insane as their President might be--stands up to the US, people cheer, the same way you or I would if the geeky kid with glasses suddenly got up the guts to kick the big, hulking, lunch-money stealing bully in the nuts.