Why do we need to DO anything about Iran?

[renie408]

I was just reading another thread and somebody asked that. I have been wondering about that, but I didn't want to say anything because everybody else seems to think that we really need to DO something about Iran. Preferably really soon. I just figured I didn't know enough about it to understand WHY we need to do something about Iran.

Is it terribly naive of me to ask why can't we just TALK to Iran? I mean, use diplomacy. Why do we always have to appear to be STRONG and TOUGH on countries who do things we don't like? And don't you think that if WE can figure out that we don't have the military wherewithal lying around to sustain a war with Iran, that THEY can figure that out and it makes us look a little stupid to be posturing like we could?

Help me out here.

[uppityperson]

1. We don't. I asked there "what problem with Iran", thought of posting a new topic...

and here you are. Thank you. Diplomacy.

[renie408]

3. You're welcome. It is a sincere question. n/t

[uppityperson]

4. It is a good question. I wonder if anyone will come up with a good answer.

For me it seems to be a sound bite, "we MUST do something!" that is catchy, easily rememberable and sloganish. WE are great so WE MUST do SOMETHING about THE PROBLEM!!!! um, what problem? WHY do you HATE amerika?!?!

Good question and thanks for posting it separately from that other trash.

[Hydra]

2. We could just leave them alone

And Syria, too. Apparently that's too much leftyism talking. Who am I to deny the great empire it's bloodbath?

[defendandprotect]

5. For the PNAC, oil companies and religious fanatics who want Armaggedon --

[Gregorian]

6. Because we need oil.

And because we're a military economy.

[Jersey Ginny]

9. Yes, our oil is under their sand and China has the arrogance to

think that it is THEIR oil, not ours.

[dbt]

7. So Dick (The Dick Cheney) and General Electric and Boeing, etc

Can get more money.

WHY DO YOU HATE AMERIKKKA?!?!?!1

[Devlzown]

8. We don't need to do anything.

Not unless we're prepared to rid the world of all its assholes. And if we do that, we can start right here.

[renie408]

10. Damn Skippy. n/t

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. Because they are over there, flouting our will, while

sitting on ALL OUR OIL!

[uppityperson]

12. No good answers yet. Kick to see if any of our friends want to help.

[renie408]

14. I was thinking the same thing. I wonder what kind of response

I would be getting if I posted the same thing on the Free Republic?

[uppityperson]

15. I imagine there would be a few responses on a wide range of topics.

[MedleyMisty]

13. We don't like their culture

and if we bomb them and kill tons of innocent people, they'll become more like us and take their prejudice and hatred underground? And I guess it's really important that we do it right now because....umm....oh, oh, because every day that we don't bomb them means our own hatred will come out into the open more, because they're sending mind control rays over here to force us to make women wear head scarves?

I have to admit that I always wondered about what it was like inside the brains of people who supported invading Iraq because "Saddam gassed his own people!". I suppose that shooting and bombing the innocents of another country is morally superior to gassing people who happened to have been born within the same arbitrary national borders as you? But even if you think that, how do you get to the idea that it is morally necessary to kill them because their dictator was killing them? Putting them out of their misery and giving them a cleaner and quicker death than gassing? But even then, we've bombed and shot a lot more Iraqis than Hussein gassed. Haven't we? I know it's not like we zeroed in on where the gassing was going on and dropped a few bombs there to kill the poor gas victims instantly.

Yes, I know that doesn't make any sense. But it's the best I can come up with to explain the thought processes of people who think that the answer to human rights abuses is to kill the humans being abused. And yes, I'm thinking of the mindset of people taken in by the propaganda, not the real reasons. I think we all know what those are.

The less soft-hearted who could care less about putting the Iranian government's victims out of their misery probably think that Iran is going to hit us with a nuclear bomb soon, despite the fact that we have enough nukes to destroy the planet three times over and that Iran would be rubble almost as soon as the nuke hit here - along with a ton of other facts that make that fear laughable.

Or maybe it's just that they're not Christian or white and the existence of non-white non-Christian people really pisses some people off.

[soothsayer]

16. No. Israel has oodles of nukes and an army they're not afraid to use.

But the real reason we want to invade Iran is to punish China for threatening to dump the dollar.

[uppityperson]

17. I hadn't heard that one, to punish China.

[mmonk]

18. Oil and natural gas and controlling prices.