Iran’s military threat is largely Photoshopped.
Israel is like America’s crazy girlfriend. You know, the kind of girl who will pick fights with random people and expect you to go along with it? It gets embarrassing. Israel’s government hates Iran so America is like, uh, I also hate Iran. But they don’t, or at least they don’t need to. Iran actually isn’t a threat to the US, certainly not one requiring war.
The issue the US and Israel is making – Iran developing nukes – is about as irrelevant and disingenuous as the fixation on Iraq’s WMDs. In Israel’s case it’s also self-defeating logic. Israel has about 200 nukes, neither confirms nor denies having them, and has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. If they were anyone but Israel, they’d be a rogue state with illegal nukes. Yet they’re trying to pillory Iran for the same thing.
I oppose the Iranian government on the grounds that they repress their own people, but the nuclear programme is not a huge problem for voters internally. Not having their votes counted, yes, but Iran developing nuclear power was not what they were in the streets for. Indirectly messing up international relations and the economy yes, but there are far more direct concerns. If anything, the Mossad policy of assassinating scientists and threatening bombing will probably unite Iranians.
Iran with nukes is also not a major issue for the United States. However much the US freaks out, Iran can’t hit them and Israel already has enough nukes to deter an attack. Indeed, the only one with nuclear weapons acting truly belligerent in this scenario is Israel. Meanwhile everyone in the region has to worry about war, the rest of the world has to worry about energy supplies (including Sri Lanka, for reals*), and it actually serves no strategic purpose for the US, who is tacitly backing the madness. While most military experts in both America and Israel are aware of this reality, politicians on both sides are acting crazy dumb. Israel really is acting like a crazy girlfriend, and America is trying to placate her in public. It’s embarrassing, and highly volatile.
UPDATE: Sri Lanka has apparently stopped importing crude from Iran due to threats of sanction. I find this somewhat amazing, since something over 90% of the crude we use for electricity generation is from Iran
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