He also has spoken of the the reality that the oil won’t last forever and Iran needs an alternative.

These are not “nice” people, but they have their rules and stand by them, which is more than you can say for the current US administration.

An additional legitimate reason why Iran might want to invest in nuclear power rather than hydrocarbon refineries is that they, as a country with finite hydrocarbon resources, understand where the world is on the peak oil curve, and can see that the refineries will only get them so far into the future. They’re simply thinking longer term.

FWIW, I think Iran would be happy to have nuclear weapons if they can manage it. They understand (as every nuclear power does) that such weapons are the most effective deterrent to naked aggression from without.

It is that very point which drives the hegemonists crazy about Iran and leads them to conclude Iran must not be allowed such an effective deterrent. I mean, no rational analyst seriously thinks Iran is going to launch a nuclear warhead at Israel (itself a nuclear power and NPT violator) or any NATO country (all actual or defacto nuclear poiwers) because shortly afterward Iran would cease to exist.

Nor do they think Iran is loony or self -destructive enough to slip a warhead to Hezbollah or Hamas or (silliest of all) Al Qaeda.

Rather, the hegemonists want to ensure, militarily when necessary, unfettered Western access to the Middle East’s dwindling supply of hydrocarbons until such time as new energy sources are made practicable or the price of oil rises to the point of equivalence to other energy sources. That’s it. That’s why (Muslim, non-democratic) Egypt’s nuclear ambitions will be tolerated–no oil to speak of. And that’s why, so long as the hegemonists hold sway and oil is king, we will have significant numbers of troops in our ‘enduring’ bases in Iraq.

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None of the people in charge ever reads the newspaper or knows anything about history.

On an separate note, the absolute stupidity of the occupation was underlined by one suggestion commented on by one of Jay Garner’s assistants (I forget her name) in Part 2 of the BBC programme on Iraq. Apparently there was a proposal to bring Serb troops into Iraq. While the troops themselves would not have been involved in Srebrenica etc, who teh hell would have thought of bringing in soldiers from a group of people who had been involved in the slaughter of Muslims just a decade before… The mind really boggles

Bush’s mommy, Karl, told him that every night at sleepytime. You don’t want to destroy a kid’s dream do you?

Liberals are such meanies.