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Analysis: Iran's Nuclear Program Has Been an Astronomical Waste
Lasrick writes: Business Insider's Armin Rosen uses a fuel-cost calculator from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to show that Iran's nuclear program has been "astronomically costly" for the country. Rosen uses calculations from this tool to hypothesize that what Iran "interprets as the country's 'rights' under the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty is a diplomatic victory that justifies the outrageous expense of the nuclear program." Great data crunching.
Is there any other way for a Middle Eastern country to earn our respect, other than to be able to nuke us?
(And no, they don't need a rocket delivery mechanism -- it can be shipped pre-emptively to the country most likely to meddle with them.)
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Iranians are not trying to make or even save money.
They are trying to build a nuclear weapon. Economists need not apply...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
They still hear the "Axis of Evil" speech, and would rather be North Korea than Iraq today.
Iran is between Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention a nuclear-armed Pakistan. Their strong desire for a deterrent weapon is understandable.
I wonder how much decisive it was in the resulting waste of money and resources.
"they're not rational!!!!".
FFS, look at Rapturists. Or Scientology. Or the denial machine in the USA. Rational? Hell, mainstream cable TV evangelicals are as mad as the frothingest Mullah on Al Jazeeri. With the filters you apply to "those foreign rag heads" applied to the USA, the USA is barking fucking mad, even compared to the *filtered* perception of Muslims.
And you have an army 20 times the size.
Unlike ISIS, Iran is a country that has existed continuously for 2500 years. I highly doubt they would self-immolate just for a chance to 'nuke the infidel.' Even Israeli intelligence agencies have looked at Iran and concluded that, despite the sabre-rattling, they are rational agents with self-preservation as a primary concern.
A fool and his hard drive are soon parted.
There are around 600 churches and nearly 400,000 Christians in Iran. If they were really interesting in attacking "infidels" they would start with them.
Iran considers the US a rogue state that illegally invades its neighbours and murders innocent civilians. Any way you frame it, they are not entirely wrong about that. Once you strip away the propaganda it's easy to see how they have quite legitimate security concerns.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
so gee I wonder why nobody is funding it
It's not funded because — despite what the group-think malcontents around here have been trained to believe — the world isn't actually run by drooling idiots.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
Christians AND jews.
Anyway, Iran doesn't scare me. What scares me are the warmongering far-right lunatics who think it's a good idea to bomb Iran.
A fool and his hard drive are soon parted.
This is nothing more than Pro-Israel FUD surrounding the nuclear deal. There will be a lot more of that the coming weeks.
Well, you start by not meddling in their politics and overthrowing their leaders, as the US did to Iran.
http://www.history.com/this-da...
You are welcome on my lawn.
Actually the problem with Iran has nothing to do with the US. Iran and similar countries are thoroughly dysfunctional without needing any reference to the US, see Syria.
All utter failures of authoritarian messes and delusions need to declare normal countries their enemy, otherwise their captive populations would demand a system like ours that wasn't Kafka's worst nightmare.
You're forgetting that everyone in the region hates Iran... except syria... and syria is falling apart.
Iran economy is in shambles, they have no friends that are standing, and their activities are agitating the saudis, egyptians, Jordians, etc...
Iran is fucked. Be Kasparov for second. War game this out 10 moves in advance.
You'll see it is already checkmate on Iran.
If they continue with their nuke program... best case... the rest of the middle east which mostly hates them will get nukes about five minutes later... at which point what has Iran accomplished?
The US is not going to nuke Iran... but the saudis might... the egyptians might. The jordanians might.
The Iranians have overdosed on their "great satan" propaganda. They've destroyed themselves. For nothing.
Imagine a different world. A world where Iran wasn't going out of its way to be a dick head. Think of how wealthy they would be? They're a generally well educated and hard working country for the region. They could be an industrial power in the middle east. The Germany or Japan of the region. And look at what they are instead? A minor oil exporter and pistachio nut exporter... which the US is undercutting in both cases by producing lots of oil and lots of pistachios.
And what did they get in return for sacrificing all of that? Nothing. Power? None. Respect? None. Leverage? None. Diplomatic support? None.
They sacrificed everything for nothing.
Go through the world and show me how many countries have prospered in dicking with the US?
Is that Zero?... so... why do it? Besides fetal lead poisoning leading to chemically induced retardation... I'm at a loss as to what they think they're doing.
Yes yes... history... colonialism... so what? What relevance does that have on 2015? Oh that's right... none. The US was at war with the British Empire for about fifty years. Then the British stopped trying to reconquer us and we became buddies.
The Iranians should be trying to make friends with the US. It would mean an end to sanctions. It would mean military security. It would mean trade opportunities. Technology sharing...
They'd very rapidly become a great power.
But they've got such a raging hate boner that they can't see they're destroying themselves. FOR NOTHING.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
The world trade centre attack was done by Saudi terrorists, and the US attacked Iraq in retaliation. If an Iranian hydrogen bomb takes out New York or Washington I expect that what's left of the US government and military will attack whoever they really want to attack, regardless of the evidence.