Another View of Iran's Nuclear Program

I'm far from knowledgeable about nuclear weapons, generally, or Iran/Israeli dynamics, specifically. But Christian Stork's oft-forwarded article, "The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Iran And The Bomb, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Facts" seems well-argued, if one-sided.

If you've heard nothing but alarmism about Iran's nuclear program, and would like to get some balance from another informed point of view (backed up by heavy hitters in the American and Israeli governments as well as nuclear regulatory bodies), I very highly recommend this five minute read.

Whether it changes your mind or not, it's an undeniable good thing to hear another side of the story, copiously referenced and logically argued. Even with our vaunted free press, we don't often get that sort of thing around here. And as Storks says:

"Given how easily the American public and media were manipulated into believing that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, this moment should give us some pause. The disastrous effects of that $3 Trillion Dollar War are still being felt across the world. For those not interested in seeing a much-bloodier, costlier sequel, I offer this introductory course in intellectual self-defense. The only way to rebuff and dismantle propaganda is to be aware of the truth on which it claims to comment."

Note: have a look at the comments

Do We Have Ahmadinejad All Wrong?

The revelations about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the Wikileaks dump didn't make much splash. Yet they're huge. Check out this Atlantic article by Reza Aslan (who is as dialed-in about Iran as anyone in this country).

MideastYouth

I live for those rare bursts of inspiration where someone, in a blast of brilliance, puts things together in a unique and jarring way to great effect. Such creative moments make me proud to be a human.

Have a look at these awesome short videos:
Iran's New Voice
Safeguard the Innocent

These were produced by the kids at mideastyouth.com, who I first wrote about here, and who were profiled by CNN here. If you like the spirit of what they're doing (even if you may not agree with all their platforms), I hope you'll join me in donating.

"Death to America" Background

During the Iranian hostage crisis, the conclusion we were all to draw from the harrowing news reports and angry images on television was that the crazies had seized control, and were venting their irrational anti-American hatred.

I heard, a few years later, that the Iranians had at the time managed to reconstruct many shredded CIA documents they'd found at the embassy (via carpet weavers). But no one ever told me that the reassembled documents were actually available to be read.

They are. In photo form, on Wikipedia, no less. It's an interesting read for those who've always wondered if there was a basis for all the seemingly irrational anti-American hatred.

The documents are a chore to read in photo form, so I tried googling some of the text, hoping to find a transcription. Remarkably, there were no hits. No one has ever transcribed these documents?

McCain Makes Me Miss Richard Nixon

Yesterday I praised Obama's reticence about injecting himself into the Iranian protest situation, which could only be harmed by our mouthing off. I wrote that "most conservative administrations would be pounding podiums and spewing indignation, regardless of realpolitik outcome." And right on cue, here's John McCain (as reported in Voice of America News):

"[Obama] should speak out that this is a corrupt, fraud, sham of an election. The Iranian people have been deprived of their rights. We support them in their struggle against a repressive, oppressive regime. And they should not be subjected to four more years of Ahmadinejad and the radical Muslim clerics."

Whatever happened to conservatives who actually knew how to handle stuff? I find myself very nearly missing Richard Nixon. The guy didn't have an honest or ethical bone in his body, and I deplored his foreign policy, but at least he had the intellectual maturity to recognize that diplomacy requires sober weighing of strategies, and a disciplined approach to achieving the outcome best serving your interests. So what's with these current guys, and their undisciplined, pinheaded predisposition to simply let rip? What happened to all those competent, crewcut, Republican squares?

Finally, I'll leave you with this amazing quote (in The Guardian) from an Ahmadinejad supporter, which strikes me as sincere as it is inexplicable:

"My son was martyred in the Iran-Iraq war. I don't want to lose our Islam. We did not participate in 1979, in the revolution, to have this kind of freedom that Mousavi supporters claim that they want."