Nerve Endings Firing Away

The biggest story yesterday should have been that Iran shelved nuclear arms work way back in 2003 but instead we had Chris Matthews discussing ‘Power Rankings’ i.e. who is more friendlier, Obama or Hillary. Using Bush’s words, we may have effectively seen the end of World War III rhetoric even before it started. But of course, the Presidential candidates are still maintaining a macho image and presenting a hawkish stance of continuing to reprimand Iran because it is still enriching uranium. It doesn’t really matter to them that Iran still doesn’t have a warhead design to deliver the danger without which any uranium enrichment is useless.

Considering that Iraq which didn’t have weapons of mass destruction got invaded and North Korea which clearly has nukes gets dissuading economic incentives, it is clear which path Iran is going to choose. The mullahs in Iran share one common trait with Kim Jong-Ill – political survival in their respective countries. Any thoughts of world domination or terrorizing neighbors comes only after this condition is met. But we also know what route of dissuasion gets the most votes in a U.S. Presidential election. Sigh!

Update: Bush on the other hand is still beating his war drum. His justification – ok! they stopped it four years ago so What’s to say they couldn’t start another covert nuclear weapons program.” By that logic, let us start threatening Maldives as well. Who know, they might contemplate building nukes if global warming doesn’t sink them first. First it was attack Iran because they are building nuclear weapons and now it is attack them because they might.