Sanctionas against Iran? For what? Your "column" of eight months ago makes you look like an ignorant fool.

Iran has no nuclear weapons. The CIA says so.

Iran did not sent weapons to Iraq. The US government has admitted it.

Iran helped to overthrow the Taliban. The US has tried to hide that fact.

There are no reasons to punish Iran; aside from their president's inanity, they should be commended. For more than 25 years after the revolution, Iran has made the slow march back to a democracy similar to the free and secular democracy they once had (and which the US overthrew and destroyed in 1953). The only thing slowing down that return has been US bluster and threats. Iran is not there yet, but if the US stops its stupidity, the youth of Iran will succeed in returning it to a secular state.

The US has never "exported democracy" except when it invaded other countries to remove it.

And who is responsible for the high price of oil? And who is responsible for instability in the middle east?

Andrew,
For your information Arabic and Persian are not "dialects," they are major languages, far superior to English in terms of literary history. Do your research before printing your opinion. Iran in particular has a long history of literature. Omar Khayam was a mathematician, poet, and a philosopher, to name one out of thosands of scholars coming from that region. Don't try to make a cultural argument out of the tragic situation in the Middle East. AIPAC and Israel lobby have a stranglehold on American foreign policy. If you turn a blind eye on this you are only fooling yourself. "Christian Zionists" are the ones interpreting everything from their holy book. You got the whole situation up-side down.

It doesn't surprise me that the views from people of the Middle East are as jaded as they are. On the one hand we in the West have not done a good job of selling the intention of creating a stable international community through the creation of interdependent, plural democratic states. Additionally Israel does act with too little regard toward civilian casualties too often. However on the other hand, only sub-Saharan Africa is further behind than the Islamic world in the development of technical and literal intellectual capacity. I reference UN development index studies that show how few patents have been issued from the Middle East as well as how few books have been translated into Arabic and Persian dialects from other languages. The response I have often seen seems to be.. "all answers are contained in the Koran--therefore independent human analysis of reality is effective blasphemy..." Respective to Iran's mullah leadership...I think this mindset is what the West ultimately fears the most.

The best thing to do for the american people is to stand up to the media-mafia and the jews who control the media. The jewcons in the white house.

It is now ABSOLUTELY CLEAR that the criminals of 911 are not the Arabs but the elements of US government and employing operational help of MI6 and Mossad. The timing analysis, seismic data, shows the the building collapsed on its FOOT PRINT in a PROFESSIONAL job of CONTROLLED DEMOLITION. Marvin Bush had the security of the buildings and the firm STOLE Mossad into the building under the guise of POWER SHUTDOWN to DISABLE all SECURITY CAMERAs. AL-QAEDA or whoever is blamed could not get into the building to PRECISELY setup THERMATE=Aluminum+IronOxide+Sulfur+Potasium Permanganate to CUT the STEEL PILLARS in CONTROLLED fashion. The VIDEOS SHOW CONCLUSIVELY yellow hot molten metal ejecting out at the columns and white aluminum oxide smoke. RUDY JULIANI had tried to DESTROY evidence by shipping steel to CHINA. BUT SOME SAMPLES were obtained and ELECTRON microprobe has given CONCLUSIVE Evidence of sulfur, manganese and Potassium. Four Israelis were caught CELEBRATING on that day and were NOT kept under INDEFINITE DETENTION as all other MOSLEMS were.

Much of the evidence is presented by Professor Steven Jones, Syndicated Columnist Alex Jones and many others in their video and sound analysis with proper delays subtracted.

There is a hilarious video of Bush stuttering under fear in interview.

And Dick Cheney whose Brain is the most full of the true information of the operation is avoiding the media and coming out only under controlled situations. He took control of NORAD 3 months before 911 to prevent the planes being shot down.

FINALLY, Bush never cares for our safety. It came out in Katrina when he was enjoying his vacation. Their goal is world domination thru oil.

Darrell,

"Israel simply wants to be able to live in peace with its neighbors"

Though I keep seeing this quoted, I have yet to see ONE Israeli action that lends it any creedence. To live in Peace implies keeping the peace, not by giving people the peace of the grave.

"Iran's leaders have made no secret of their goal to eliminate the State of Israel. Israel's leaders have made no similar statements concerning any Arab/Islamic countries"
No, Just about the peoples themselves. See Golda Meirs statement about Palestinians.

"Iran has no threat that requires it to obtain nuclear weapons to defend itself." Have you been listening to ANYTHING the government of the United States has said? If so, you know what they have to protect themselves from.

In my opinion, I hope that UN and western world (P5+1) impose economical sanction such as importation of Auto- Gasoline to Iran. It is true that in a short while (i.e. a few years) Iranian people will suffer. But Iranians are as talented as other nations and will figure out how to refine and produce their own gasoline from their wealth of crude oil and they will learn to adopt energy conservative policies leading to more self reliance.

Remember, the Iran's isolation in the years of war with Iraq "turned the Iranians into military professionals" who proceeded to develop an advanced and innovative defense industry according to the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS). As a result Iran today produces almost two thousand defense items, from munitions to aircraft, and from missile boats to satellites. It exports military equipment to over 30 countries, including seven in Europe.

A nuclear Iran is a threat to western civilization. period.

Interesting to hear Americans - citizens of the only country ever to have used nuclear weapons at the end of a war almost won - talk about the threat of a nuclear armed Iran. What gives the US, the country that dropped millions of tons of bombs and herbicides on Vietnam, invaded Grenada, Iraq and Panama, that daily violates international law in Guantanamo and threatens to bomb Iran, that breaks its own domestic laws and spies on its own citizens - the right to decide who should have the right to develop nuclear power? Perhaps the thing to do should be to ban the teaching of nuclear physics in Third World countries - to prevent them from developing the scientific base that could at some future date lead to their developing nuclear weapons. Keep them barefoot and ignorant and pregnant too, if possible. Only than can you continue to dominate these aliens.

As citizens of one of the greatest countries in the world Americans have a duty to protect their democracy.

They do that when they fulfill their jury duty. They protect their democracy when they go to the polls and vote. And some have to bear arms and defend their countries in foreign lands.

If you have not been among those who had to leave wife and infant children behind and spend your Christmas in a rat hole, or watch a friend die in your arms or had to wipe their brain off your face, you may owe it to them to step up, and defend America and its democracy.

You owe it to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, as well as your children and America's future generation to seek the truth, be informed citizens, and speak out courageously. And that is no easy task.

If you take your patriotic responsibility seriously, then I urge you to invest the significant time it requires to watch http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-7828123714384920696 in its ENTIRETY. This is not about Arabs and Israelis. It is about the media and the fragility of democracy.

While I respect everyone's opinion, even when it has no basis in reality, we should beat the drums of war and violence with caution and responsibility, grounded in truth about what is happening around us.

To that end, I urge you all to read the Working Paper Number:RWP06-011 by John J. Mearsheimer, department of Political Science, University of Chicago and Stephen M. Walt, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. It is called "The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy". You can download it at:

http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/Research/wpaper.nsf/rwp/RWP06-011/$File/rwp_06_011_walt.pdf

It is 80+ pages!! But if you care about America, and what is happening to it all over the world, read it. Read it for the sake of your children and in honor of those who made the ultimate sacrifice; then form your own opinion.

On April 26, 2006 Iran's supreme religious leader Khamenei stated:

"The Iranian nation and government advocate world peace and security and will never attack anyone in the future..."

According to the translation by Juan Cole, a University of Michigan Professor of Modern Middle East and South Asian History "Ahmadinejad did not say he was going to wipe Israel off the map because no such idiom exists in Persian" and "He did say he hoped its regime, i.e., a Jewish-Zionist state occupying Jerusalem, would collapse."

On 20 February 2006, Iran's foreign minister denied that Tehran wanted to see Israel "wiped off the map," saying "Nobody can remove a country from the map. This is a misunderstanding in Europe of what our president mentioned," Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference, speaking in English, after addressing the European Parliament. "How is it possible to remove a country from the map? He is talking about the regime. We do not recognise legally this regime," he said.

Iran's official position, which has not changed since the beginning of the revolution is that there are over 3 million Palestinians living as refugees outside Palestine. They should have the right to come back and along with the Jewish people participate in a referendum that will determine the future structure of a fair, equitable, non-racist, non-apartheid non-colonial government in Palestine.

a nuclear attack on Tehran?, you are crazy, that will be the end of human kind.

Iran's leaders have made no secret of their goal to eliminate the State of Israel. Israel's leaders have made no similar statements concerning any Arab/Islamic countries. Israel is surrounded by countries that want it to become extinct. Israel has conventional and nuclear weapons to defend itself from such extinction. Iran has no threat that requires it to obtain nuclear weapons to defend itself. Its only need for such weapons is to deter others from attacking them in their continued surrogate war against Israel. Israel simply wants to be able to live in peace with its neighbors. Iran has done all that it can to make sure that Israel can never live in peace. If we don't deal harshly with Iran sometime in the near future, the whole world will suffer harsh consequences.

Only hysterical Israelis and the misinformed people in the West have the out-stretched imaginations to equate WIPE ISRAEL OFF THE MAP with incitement to genocide.
Most people in Israel and the West unfortunately or intentionally understand WIPE ISRAEL OFF THE MAP to mean that Iran, somehow, is going to nuke Israel. This in spite of the glaring fact that it is Israel which has the capability -- even without US help -- to turn Iran into a nuclear wasteland overnight.

Reasonable people all over the world see the statement WIPE ISRAEL OFF THE MAP as something quite different. They see it as a gradual dissolution of the Jewish state, which will quite naturally come about when Palestinians - including the refugees -- acquire the same political rights as Jews in the original territory of Palestine.
Indeed being WIPED OFF THE MAP need not be cataclysmic at all.

Soviet Union figured as the largest entity on the world atlas no more than 20 years ago. Soviet Union has now been WIPED OFF THE MAP peacefully and without much blood or many tears having being shed. What is more the people of the vanished Soviet Union are by and large enjoying greater freedom and democratic rights than before.

Israel could also vanish from the maps, when true democracy reigns in all of Palestine under one flag.

So why does Uncle Same seem to Care so much about Iran? Why is Iran so important? You go on the web these days you see a gazillion new headlines wiht Iran Nukes in some shape or form. Could it be that there is something that Iran and the middle east has that uncle sam wants? I dont think anyone in the middle east believes the US policy has anything to do with democracy in the region and for those in the west who think they are spreading democracy well...its about time to get you head out of .....

ordinary folks in the midwest probably have no idea where israel is, and some of them may not even know what it is, yet they know all too well how much they're paying to fill up at the pump. if only they knew the link between those two, they might decapitate the bush brigade

Leon Krauze is NOT even a real Mexican!

He is a JEW! His REAL concern about Iran getting nukes has NOTHING to do with his alleged country, Mexico! Its has even less to do with ANY threats to the USA!

It does have everything to do with Israel, where his true allegiance lies!!!

I think the U.S. should seriously consider a nuclear strike on Tehran. A tragic turn. But preferable to letting Iran go nuclear? I think it would probably would be.

Iran lives in a dangerous neighbourhood. Israel to its West, Pakistan in the East, India to its Southeast. All N-powers.
A hostile USA in in the North in occupation of its neighbour.

A very powerful Iran wants to destroy Israel, seemingly at any cost...This is not tabloid gossip, it has been quoted by their president...Israel know very well that their regional opposition has grown stronger over the years, it is not the 1970's or 90's for that matter as their foes are much better equipped and supported. Ultimately the middle east WILL be heading for major war sooner rather than later. This scenario could easily trigger WWIII...This is why the West would rather deal with Iran now rather than wait three years when they reach the point of no return like N. Korea...Iran wants to be a world player (and who could blame them) and developing the weapons and having energy to export as well put them on their way to that goal...this could all go either way, with Iran either being destroyed or they could be victorous and be part of a new world order one day...The key to the whole situation all boils down to who sides with who when the time comes...with all this hatred, mistrust, and technology all dangerously mixed together with HISTORY, religeon, and oil, we can all be certain of a gloomy future.

About a thousand years ago Ferdowsi, a great Iranian poet and patriot, wrote "Without Iran, I will sieze to exist." This is 700 hundred years before the so called scholars in the west estimate the rise of nation-state and thus "nationalism." Somebody needs to tell that redneck in Waco to leave Iranians alone. Iranians are proud people, and they will never allow foreigners to invade their land. They don't care much for the Islamic Republic, but they do care about their country and they will defend it to the last man.

Yes, let's teach them Democracy through the barrel of Uncle Sam's Guns!!!!!
When are you going to learn? Haven't you learned anything about the Iraq Invasion fiasco? and the death of over 2600 American young men so far there? Are you ready to send your own children to fight another futile war?
Why are you demonizing the government in Iran? Ahmadinejad does not even control 10% of the power in Iran. he is just glowing in his election to the presidential office, and his anti-Israel comments are just for doemstic Basiji audience.
Iranians are far smarter than you give them credit for. They have 3000 years of history & culture and brilliant chess players on the world strategy board of politics.
Unfortunately there is so much ignorance & superficial ideas floating in the west about Iran's culture and politics that I am afraid it may lead to another debacle, but this one will be 100 fold in the order of magnitude than what we have seen in Afghanistan & Iraq.
Only cool heads with wisdom will prevail.

Another stupid idiot writing another distorted opinion. I am so disgusted with the media for failing over and over again to have educated and well-informed people put their pen where there mind is instead of their ass. This writer is just another who will learn by history, but he appears to stupid to realize it when that actually happens. Live and learn: there is nothing you or your incompetent government can do to stop iran from doing whatever it damn wants. You can't even handle your own disasters like Katrina, let alone control a land so rich in history, bravery, and trickery.

To answer the question of Garshasb Aryafar. No, unfortunatley the United States does not care about the Iranian people. It cares about money.

we iranian jailed in our home its funny
we cannt dance in our wedding its simplest example to show how we are limited we havent free media like tv,newspaper,magazine ... in our cooleges and universities you should be member of some milicia group to get some extra right !!!
but we iranian want to know will usa solve our problem or they want to force more extra problem we have old history and this ancient history causez we have good exprience about politic...
our question is that
does the west want to save ppl in iran or they just want to promotoe their position in area and control the old price :)

There is no way to stop Iranian regime from seeking atomic energy through negotiation. The only way to stop it is through force and regime change. In order to change the regime in Iran the west absolutely needs support of Iranian people. I can assure you that at least 80% of Iranians population is anti its government at the same time extremely miss-trust the west specially US and UK. Also extremely proud people most of them support the nuclear technology. In order to gain the trust of people west must not scream about the nuclear technology and show more concern about people's life and democracy and poverty and drug addiction. West must support the peoples and students democratic movement with full force, talk loud about killing and imprisonment of journalists and students, changing the regime of Iran through a democratic referendum is the key

Ya, like when Iran nukes Paris and Berlin, like, what do we do then? Like, give up!
You know, convert to islam or something.
If we all just go along with Ahmadinejad-de-Hitler we will have like, you know, peace in our time! Like, I really like the stars.

Has Iran followed a policy of ignoring the UN for 30 years while they occupy an area that (according to the vast majority of sovereign countries) belongs to the indigenous people?

No.

Does Iran have a record of preemptive war on 6 continents, massive, regionally-destabilizing covert activities, coup d'etats, and an archipelago of concentration camps spread across the globe?

No.

Has Iran done anything that would indicate that it would use a nuclear weapon against a civilian population like the United States did in Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

No.

The real issue with Iran is that its leaders have shown the temerity to control their own resources, which the corporate globalists and Washington plutocrats claim as their own.

In 1979 Jimmy Carter told the world that Iran was an Island of stability under the King Reza Pahlavi. Six month later the Island was drowned under an Ocean of instability. It is sad to witness this recidivist drunk driver that is the U.S. Foreign policy to have a carte blanche to continue to cause mayhem around the world and yet never be held accountable for its actions. It has become so difficult to Google for some honest news these days. Most reporters have joined the legion of media mercenaries beholden to one cabal or another. Iran is a 4000 year old nation with very little history of drunk driving or aggression. The U.S. on the other hand, check it out for yourself. 200 years of history, produced 200 wars according to Gore Vidal. Not bad for a young lad.

Yes, sanctions and further isolation. Use the tactic that worked so well for Iraq and North Korea, and when it fails; use brute force on a hornet's nest. Iran is emboldened, impowered, whatever you want to say and many people stand behind the government (most Iranians support the nuclear program) however, it is the power of the governing body that has empowered the country. What is required in Iran is not a regime change through suffocation of the current. It is a reversal of power from centralised at the head of the theocracy, to the people. Persians are traditionally more inclined towards "western values" (let's not forget Irans very brief flirtation with democracy until the US and UK crushed that hope in the 50's) Democracy and change cannot come from above and the United States and the United Kingdom will never get what they desire through sanctions or regime change. Both will severly distance the already alienated people of Iran. What is needed is open dialouge and progressive steps towards democracy. Which, (for better or worse) will eventually lead to the accomplishment of any and all of the American goals: if it is possible to foment even remote channels to democracy in Iran and open it up to trade with the western world (not just Russia and China as it is now) then eventually the United States can conquer it as it does every other "democratic" country through "free trade" this would avoid the loss of innocent life, annother oil crisis and allow the United States free access to the remaining petrolium reserves in Iran.
Let us not forget: this is about oil. Iran is 3 to 5 years from actually having enough material to create a weapon. This is about Iran supplying the bulk of energy to China and India and Russia. This is a conflict of economics.
The United States will have to be very careful with how it chooses to deal with this situation or it will feel the consequences of alienating a country and people that have become very very important on the world scale in recent months.

You are obviously clueless about what is going on regarding Iran and proof of this fact is your statement: "Naturally, economic sanctions are in order."

Educate yourself first before making poorly informed comments. Try these sites for information on what's really going on:

www.campaigniran.org aand
http://iraninformationagency.blogspot.com

Invade, invade, invade.
Are we gtoing to let a violent, fanatic theocracy have nukes? When are we gonna hear about courses of action the US actually can take to stop this for real?

The best thing to do with Iran is
1. Tell Glen Beck to Shutup and stop making up lies like the Aug 22 end of days crap
2. Stop threatening the government, because its strengthening them
3. Appeal to the people of Iran, The LOVE the west.