Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluesman
They can think whatever the hell they'd like, but if we simply won't allow it - and I and Podhoretz and dalem all agree that we should NEVER allow it - then it's simply going to remain an unrealized wish.
I agree that it DOES represent a problem in the abstract, as in, whatever they're determined to do and we're determined to prevent will remain a point of conflict. But this is really the bottom line: it comes down to WILL. If we are determined enough to prevent it - and we certainly SHOULD be - then we have the means to do so, and they do NOT have the means to assert their own will.
And that's independent of whether we have set up a puppet government or destroyed huge numbers of Iranians. We can deny them nukes for as long as we maintain the will to do so.
And we SHOULD.
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The point I'm trying to make is that this problem won't find a solution in regime change or damaging the Iranian government because it springs from what the Iranian people believe is a right. Now if that attitude persists eventually they will get the bomb unless we install a government that is pliable (with its own set of problems).
If one looks at the long term problems of containment, it isn't really one that a democracy like the US is equipped to sustain. I agree that it is something we
need to do and
could, I just don't think that the American public is prepared to do it... meaning puppet government or nuclear war are the two likely outcomes.
My money is on Israel.