Iran, A Nuclear Middle East & The Future

The psychological build-up against Iran continues. We have John McCain trying to make a joke to bomb Iran, we have US Generals stating that Iran is arming Sunnis, the Taliban and so on. The comment on the Taliban is attributed to General Pace. General Pace seems to convienently forget that Iran almost went to war with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Apparently, this Adminstration does not want to learn anything from the debacle in Iraq.

The concerns about Iran are justified. But, The Iraq disaster has allowed everyone in the Middle East to talk about the unthinkable: having the Middle East go nuclear. Iran will be one of the first countries who has to truly start thinking about life beyond oil. Iran has not had wise rulers such as the rulers of the United Arab Emirates who have already planned for life beyond oil The present government in Iran has been irresponsible, to say the least. It has squandered its' oil windfall and it is now being forced to import Gasoline. Furthermore, the government will be beginning a rationing program starting next month. If we talked to North Korea, it seems that we can start a dialogue with Iran. If the dialogue failed and the Adminstration had to make some decisions, then the moral justification will be there. I doubt that discussions will happen during the Bush Adminstration.