Saturday, September 29, 2007

When Iran's Disappointed, Bad Things Happen

Iran has a nuclear program that it kept quiet for sixteen years. The official line is that Iran needs reactors for peaceful, civilian, power generation. Quite a few people think that the ayatollahs want nuclear weapons.

And, that Supreme Leader Ali Hoseini-Khamenei and company shouldn't get them.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the United Nations that it was not acceptable to let Iran acquire nuclear weapons, and that war is a possible consequence if diplomacy doesn't work. That's an oddly strong statement about the current rulers of Iran.

It's doubly amazing, considering what can happen when the current regime in Iran doesn't get what it wants.

Take Argentina, for example. Trade with Iran was a profitable deal for Argentina in the 1970s and 1980s, continuing after the Ayatollahs took over in the late 1970s. Argentina even helped the new regime lay the foundations of its nuclear program.

Then, Argentinian leaders decided that they wanted to stop the nuclear aid. Iran's rulers were understandably miffed.

In 1992, 29 people were killed by a homicide bomber in an truck bomb attacked the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires. In 1994, a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires was bombed: 85 killed. It could be coincidence. But the Argentinian government says that Hezbollah did the actual dirty work: on orders from Tehran.

Argentinian leaders have arrest warrants for nine Iranian officials and Hezbollah leaders, but no one has caught them yet.

So, hats off to President Sarkozy, for risking the Iran's displeasure.

I hope other leaders develop a sense of what's at stake. And are willing to take short-term risks for the sake of long-term survival.

Sources:
"Terrorist base south of border" WorldNetDaily.com
(December 1, 2003)
"Official: Iran Ordered Terrorist Bombing in the Americas" FOXNews.com
(September 27, 2007)

Related posts, on Individuals and the War on Terror.

2 comments:

Jeb Koogler said...

Interesting website, Brian. Care to exchange links?

Regards,
JK

www.fpwatch.blogspot.com

Brian H. Gill said...

Thanks, JK,

And, yes, I'd be glad to exchange links. In fact, I've put "Foreign Policy Watch" on my (new) blogroll.

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Blogroll

Note! Although I believe that these websites and blogs are useful resources for understanding the War on Terror, I do not necessarily agree with their opinions. 1 1 Given a recent misunderstanding of the phrase "useful resources," a clarification: I do not limit my reading to resources which support my views, or even to those which appear to be accurate. Reading opinions contrary to what I believed has been very useful at times: sometimes verifying my previous assumptions, sometimes encouraging me to change them.

Even resources which, in my opinion, are simply inaccurate are sometimes useful: these can give valuable insights into why some people or groups believe what they do.

In short, It is my opinion that some of the resources in this blogroll are neither accurate, nor unbiased. I do, however, believe that they are useful in understanding the War on Terror, the many versions of Islam, terrorism, and related topics.