Sorry, but all this is futile.

We are doomed to phase II of the conflict beginning in IRAN by christmas 2006.

Achelmist, i agree whith you, but not in your rude shot at the writer.

Mate, she has done well and there is no point knocking anyone, you and i did not achieve what she has in her field. Give her a break on the personal attacks, there are room for theorists in this life, however futile in certain circumstances.

It annoys me more about North Korea, the only real world threat, that the US does not want a fight, they want to railroad their victories and grab the trophy.

What a shame we are all insignificant and we cant change anything.

Leanne - your sooo wrong

The only thing that Iran's authoritarian regime respect is threats of military force that would put them out of a job.

The US, UK, France and Israel are runnng a scare campaign against Iran which is a legitimate and humanitarian strategy.

Your softly, softly approach of using opposition groups would backfire as they would be accused by Iran (perhaps with some justification) as being "in the pay of CIA imperialism".

Its all well, good and democratic for people to say that Iran like other countries is entitled to have nuclear weapons. But Iran (or its terrorist friends) may endanger Australia one day.

When Iran gets around to producing miniturised nuclear weapons they could be transported to Australia with ease. You may have heard of "suitcase nuclear devices", such weapons can also be integrated into innocuous looking business jets etc. Far fetched? So were the terrorist "bombings" of 9/11.

So while we must be fair, the Iranian regimes actions and statements represent a real danger for the future.

Unless Iran's nuclear program is stopped that is, by reponding to:

a) the scare campaign, or

b) responding to the realisation of the scare campaign, that is airstrikes against Iran's nuclear development and ballistic missile facilities.

I realise these statements are not politically correct in this string.

If you would like to read further on how these airstrikes may be executed please consult my blog "Spooky Pete" at http://spyingbadthings.blogspot.com/

Pete

The threat posed by any country possessing nuclear, biological or chemical weapons is very real.
Some of the countries who possess most of the nuclear weapons have also been the most aggressive countries in the past fifty years and we should be more concerned about these countries than we are.

I think that we should have one set of rules for all of the countries who have nuclear weapons - get rid of them.

If every country had a department of Peace then we may have a much happier world than we have.

So its Iran that is imminently going to create nuclear warheads and take over the world this time? lollerskates...

I still think the real solution has to come from the Iranian people and their resistance. Another war in the middle-east is going to create a disaster. Following is an Article by opposition leader, Maryam Rajavi, publiished in the IHT. If you have time click on the link and read the whole thing:

"There is no need for war; no one would want to see an Iraq II played out in Iran. But engagement, which has shaped policy toward Iran on both sides of the Atlantic for two decades, has been a disaster, strengthening the most radical factions of the ruling theocracy.

The failure to isolate a religious dictatorship bent on spreading its fiery brand of Islamic fundamentalism and acquiring nuclear weapons has led to the current stalemate. Now Tehran's missiles, capable of bearing weapons of mass destruction, can reach eastern and southern Europe."

International Herald Tribune full Article: (http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/01/27/opinion/edrajavi.php)

Maryam Rajavi Website:
http://maryam-rajavi.com

I see some posts suggesting that the war in iraq etc is about oil evidenced by the fact that north korea is being left alone. This understanding shows how little you understand; china is protecting north korea. surely noone is suggesting we commit suicide by taking them on. we need to be pragmatic and fight for democracy where we have a chance of winning. North korea is stopped from being a threat because as soon as they do anything china will have to renounce thier protection or face mutual assured destruction, whereas north korea wouldn't last minutes without china and only has a few Nbombs at most. Whereas iran is trying to get the technology in place to make several per month. I am certainly glad we do not have any sort of direct democracy on international affairs, as you guys would have no idea. Much better to follow our system of electing a war cabinet, who takes the advice of thousands of educated analysts, instead of uneducated idiots. Its a pity that noone understands our system, as the protests against the war showed (through the language they used, "we don't want this war" etc). what these people are really saying is "we don't want this democracy" which has long had traditions for deciding when to go to war. The time for protest is at the polls, if you want to protest before that, then you have been an idiot in the last election (not advocated enough, or elected with ignorance). Hopefully with Johnny fighting against the reletivism that lets you think your opinion is worth as much as a government opinion made up from the veiws of thousands, there may not be another idiotic and undemocratic generation! Go Johnny against reletivism and post-modernity and political correctness.