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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.
And they would do it again.
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.
Is there any other way for a Middle Eastern country to earn our respect, other than to be able to nuke us?
Ironically, Iran is the Middle Country most likely to deserve our respect for things other than having nuclear capabilities. When you look beyond the demented ravings of some of their past leaders, they are on a significantly higher level than their neighbours in many respects. As far as I now, they do actually have a somewhat functional democracy, a rather good education system etc. I have always felt they have deserved better than the press they have tended to get since Khomeiny toppled the puppet shah; they are not saints, by any means, but neither are they devils incarnate. They could be our friends in the longer term, unlike for example IS.
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.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
How did they get this capability? Countries from all over the world helped them, including the US, France, England, Germany and China.
So given this history, is it irrational for Iran to want to get the biggest baddest weapon of mass destruction they can, no matter what the cost? A rational cost analysis is irrelevant under these circumstances.
A significant number of the world's major powers
Why is Snark Required?
This.
I've also always wondered why the U.S. put all its money on the Arab countries instead of Iran. Iran at least has basic level of Democracy with presidential elections. Irans youth is, in general, more progressive and open minded that in most other islamic countries.
The U.S. big ally and arch-enemy of Iran, Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, is a practically an absolutist monarchy practicing extremely conservative interpretation of Sharia law. It's also interesting to point out that many high-profile terrorists, such as Osama bin Ladin, were Saudi Arabians. I wouldn't be surprised if elements in Saudi Arabia's government secretly support or at the very least condone IS in Syria and Iraq. They seem pretty single-minded about supporting Sunni Islam against everything Shia.
I was talking to a colleague following the terrorist attacks last week in France, Tunisia and Kuwait. His wife was talking about going on holiday somewhere and he said "fine, as long as it's not a Muslim country". We then progressed on to how it was sad that the region that was the cradle of civilisation is now well behind the curve.
I also added that Iran is probably one of the safer Muslim countries to visit nowadays, which is ironic to say the least. He's still not convinced about going to Tehran for his summer holidays though!
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.
Horse shit.
Iran was a pro-Western, pro-American country until we sent the CIA to overthrow their government in 1953 and installed the Shah. If you're going to quote an Israeli PJMedia/Fox News propagandist, you might want to find one with more credibility than Barry Rubin.
You are welcome on my lawn.
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.
This. I've also always wondered why the U.S. put all its money on the Arab countries instead of Iran. Iran at least has basic level of Democracy with presidential elections. Irans youth is, in general, more progressive and open minded that in most other islamic countries. The U.S. big ally and arch-enemy of Iran, Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, is a practically an absolutist monarchy practicing extremely conservative interpretation of Sharia law. It's also interesting to point out that many high-profile terrorists, such as Osama bin Ladin, were Saudi Arabians. I wouldn't be surprised if elements in Saudi Arabia's government secretly support or at the very least condone IS in Syria and Iraq. They seem pretty single-minded about supporting Sunni Islam against everything Shia.
Basically significant segments of the Iranian government and a good number of the population (not necessarily a majority, but enough to have influence) have anti-Americanism as their raison d'être. Khomeini hated America for supporting the Shah and he passed that hatred down to his disciples. His disciples continue to be the true powers in Iran. These people have merged religion with anti-Americanism so to them, not being anti-American is like rejecting Islam. It will probably be decades before enough time has passed for mullahs to come into power in Iran who have no personal animosity towards America. Consider too that among people old enough to remember the Iran hostage situation that there is some severe hatred towards Iran so that makes it difficult for the US to make friends with Iran as portions of US power (some people in Congress and various government agencies) will never trust them because of that.
To be honest, the US would probably like to be friends with Iran, but the mullahs can't and won't allow it. The US really would be better off backing the Shiites like Iran as they are somewhat less troublesome to deal with than the Sunnis, but they can't publicly say that because the Sunnis have the numbers. Numbers of followers alone make it in the US's best interests to try to deal with Sunni governments, many of which hate the US and do things that support terrorists indirectly if not directly. The Saudi government has been pretty good friends with the USA, but unfortunately they support a version of Islam that over time has become more and more intolerant of non-Muslims and is directly or indirectly responsible for groups like ISIS and Al Queda. The Saudi rulers need US support to stay in power and the US needs them lest Saudi Arabi turn into an even bigger headache for the US than Iran.
The US governments under George W. Bush and Barack Obama have had unrealistic expectations of Middle Eastern democracy. The idea was that if given the opportunity to freely elect their leaders that they would be so grateful to the USA that they'd become our best friends. Instead it has become apparent to me that if given a free choice, the majority of Muslim voters will willingly vote to take away their own rights under oppressive religious governments and those that hate the US will come out of the shadows and work to attack the US. The only country that went through the Arab Spring and maybe came out on the better end was Egypt and they had to beg the military to overthrow the legally elected government.
You're assuming they're thinking rationally. They're not. It's not a well-calculated strategy, it's all about Islam.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
First of all, Iran COULD NOT USE the bomb if it had one.
Why?
1. They can't bomb Jerusalem, which is as holy to them as to jews and Christians. Their own
people would slaughter them. AND they'd kill most of the Palestinians in the Occupied
Territories of the West Bank.
2. Israel is smaller than the US state of New Jersey. At one point, I believe it's a total
of ->17mi- wide. What this means is using the bomb *anywhere* in Israel means
fallout on Jerusalem.
3. Following 2, it *also* means fallout on the Palestinians.
4. Oh, yes - the winds would mean that fallout would COME BACK TO IRAN.
Therefore, the ONE and ONLY purpose that Iran would want the bomb is MAD with Israel (who has a bunch of bombs, and would cheerfully use it on Iran, if they didn't think there'd be no Israel left afterwards.
Oh, yes, and with all the climate-change deniers here, *no* *one* could imagine that maybe Iran's worried about when their oil fields are played out, and planning to do things with the money while they have it to prepare for the future, no, no, that's *way* more than next quarter....
mark
"it's all about Islam."
DING DING DING!!! We have a winner. You wins the internet. I wish the rest of the world would fucking get it. You can't rationalize radical religious convictions.
Well, until you realize that those religious lines are conveniently following ethnic lines that have existed much longer than islam. The main driver in the middle east is sunni-shia politics which equates to arab-persian politics. The west is just an issue to be dealt with after the shia issue has been dealt with ti the IS.
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.