re: #658 Gus 802

Iran has made dealings with North Korea. There have been ship loaded with weapons intercepted going into Gaza. North Korea is evil. Iran is evil. The Iranian people are good. At least half. The rest are fringe extremists that make Rick Santorum look like a liberal Democrat.

This seems to me an astonishingly simplistic view. I would imagine most of the North Koreans are decent people just woefully ignorant, it is the leadership that is the problem, and they are happy to use an adversarial relationship with the US to their advantage domestically.

I think that your view of the average Iranian is a little dubious as well, This is not some backwards country of religious fanatics, it is a highly educated country with strong ties to the US, and a remarkably favorable view of the US amongst its populace.

The point I was trying to make is that this escalating adversarial relationship does not serve our interests, it empowers extremists on both sides and marginalizes the vast majority of moderate reasonable people.

I just don’t see Iran as it is constantly portrayed, the biggest threat on the planet. Not can I see any chance of them ever using a nuclear weapon, they would be vaporized in 10 minutes.

No one has used nuclear weapons in more then 60 years, but of the countries that have them, India, Pakistan and Israel are far more likely to be drawn into a situation that might escalate to that point. Yet we don’t have the same relationship with those countries. And those are the countries outside the NPT.