Article: This is war: Iran officials on sanctions

[empirex]

Why, people say north korea wants to destroy the world and they have nukes. I would say their old leader was far worse than the Iranian leader yet no nukes were dropped. There are many nations with nukes who are considered bad but yet still no mushroom cloud.

No, two very different countries with entirely different politics, motives and culture.
NK are loud-mouth communists, who demand respect and a seat at the table of power. They are fairly predictable in their approach and demands.

Iran on the other hand for me has an unknown element. Their power structures are more complex and when you factor religion into that, it is a whole lot more complicated than NK.

Being anti west does not mean you want to destroy the world, well that is if you ignore the propaganda.

Of course.

Yea marine iran is far more peaceful than the US, in fact every single nation is more peaceful than the US but the US are the worlds police. Hmmm

The old USA is dead. It no longer exists. People support an idea that once was.

Police? No, thugs more like it.
Go back in recent history. with an open mind, look at every move the USA has made in terms of waging war, UN resolutions, and their policies -- it all serves their own political agenda. It has NOTHING to do with the people of Syria, Iraq or any other country.

[empirex]

Nuclear weapons are probably South Africa's strongest link to Israel. Didn't they assist in commissioning and subsequent dismantling of our nuclear weapons?

Wish we still had our nukes

[killadoob]

No, two very different countries with entirely different politics, motives and culture.
NK are loud-mouth communists, who demand respect and a seat at the table of power. They are fairly predictable in their approach and demands.

Iran on the other hand for me has an unknown element. Their power structures are more complex and when you factor religion into that, it is a whole lot more complicated than NK.



Of course.



The old USA is dead. It no longer exists. People support an idea that once was.

Police? No, thugs more like it.
Go back in recent history. with an open mind, look at every move the USA has made in terms of waging war, UN resolutions, and their policies -- it all serves their own political agenda. It has NOTHING to do with the people of Syria, Iraq or any other country.

Look i will agree iran is a bit unknown but they have done nothing to make me think they want to blow countries up. If anything i find it remarkable that they have managed to put a nuclear power station online with all the restrictions they have been faced with and that is partly the reason i have soft spot for them. They refuse to bow down to bullies who have sanctioned them for 3 decades.

The biggest problem is people cannot see there are no good guys running this planet, they seem to have this good and bad take on life. Very few can handle the fact that there is pretty much no good.

Yea as you say the US does not care about iraqi, libyan,syrian etc people they just do whatever moves their agenda forward. Getting rid of enemies.

[Fudzy]

Wish we still had our nukes

I could not come up with a statement strong enough to represent my disagreement with your post. So I just wrote this.

[killadoob]

I could not come up with a statement strong enough to represent my disagreement with your post. So I just wrote this.

Yea as well, thank god we got rid of that shyte. Nukes will lead to our demise at some point. History has proven one thing, we have an appetite to kill each other. At some point some crazy nut job will use them again but the response will not be surrender.

[empirex]

Look i will agree iran is a bit unknown but they have done nothing to make me think they want to blow countries up. If anything i find it remarkable that they have managed to put a nuclear power station online with all the restrictions they have been faced with and that is partly the reason i have soft spot for them. They refuse to bow down to bullies who have sanctioned them for 3 decades.

The biggest problem is people cannot see there are no good guys running this planet, they seem to have this good and bad take on life. Very few can handle the fact that there is pretty much no good.

Yea as you say the US does not care about iraqi, libyan,syrian etc people they just do whatever moves their agenda forward. Getting rid of enemies.

Sad but true.
Such is the history of the world though.. has it really changed?

Think about it, the United States of America came about as a direct result of escaping the tyranny of British rule. Their Republic (not democracy) and entire system of government was founded around the rights of the individual, rather than the dictatorial oppression of a monarchical system.

Most importantly, it allowed the individual to rise to his full potential, unhindered by government -- it's why America was the greatest country in the world, why it's economy flourished and rose to heights more than any other throughout history.

That has all changed.
The very system their founders set up in order to prevent any one person, body, state or President from wielding outright power has slowly been eroded away; the controls and measures implemented now "amended" beyond recognition over the years.

America is not the America of old, it has long ceased to exist whittled away inch by inch. Anyone who thinks otherwise does not know history, or follow current events relating to current US law.

[empirex]

I could not come up with a statement strong enough to represent my disagreement with your post. So I just wrote this.

It's a tough call.

But mutually assured destruction is the only game in town when someone else has 'the bomb'. Without it, you are nothing, zip, zero. Just ask Japan.

Would I prefer no nukes worldwide. Absolutely. Unfortunately we don't have Superman to save our butts...

[Garson007]

Sad but true.
Such is the history of the world though.. has it really changed?

Think about it, the United States of America came about as a direct result of escaping the tyranny of British rule. Their Republic (not democracy) and entire system of government was founded around the rights of the individual, rather than the dictatorial oppression of a monarchical system.

Most importantly, it allowed the individual to rise to his full potential, unhindered by government -- it's why America was the greatest country in the world, why it's economy flourished and rose to heights more than any other throughout history.

That has all changed.
The very system their founders set up in order to prevent any one person, body, state or President from wielding outright power has slowly been eroded away; the controls and measures implemented now "amended" beyond recognition over the years.

America is not the America of old, it has long ceased to exist whittled away inch by inch. Anyone who thinks otherwise does not know history, or follow current events relating to current US law.

Their biggest drawback is in fact still holding onto the constitution drafted by the founding fathers. All the need to do is draft a new one, just with modern interpretations of the same ideals.

[empirex]

Their biggest drawback is in fact still holding onto the constitution drafted by the founding fathers. All the need to do is draft a new one, just with modern interpretations of the same ideals.

What's wrong with the old one?

Just look at what has happened as they have drifted further and further away from the constitution. The further away they went from those original principles the worse it's gotten. That speaks volumes. America never used to be an interventionist state, it's now the number one attack dog, bully, instigator, call it what you will, in the world.

[Garson007]

What's wrong with the old one?

It's old. I realise that many conservatives and reactionaries don't want to believe it, but the world has changed massively in the past 250 years. Revision is required after such a long time period (at least every 50 years really). Even one of those they revere felt exactly the same way; there are many quotes by Thomas Jefferson asking for periodical constitution rewriting and revolution, typically within a twenty year time frame.

[empirex]

It's old. I realise that many conservatives and reactionaries don't want to believe it, but the world has changed massively in the past 250 years. Revision is required after such a long time period (at least every 50 years really). Even one of those they revere felt exactly the same way; there are many quotes by Thomas Jefferson asking for periodical constitution rewriting and revolution, typically within a twenty year time frame.

I hear you and I've thought the very same thing myself; but for something that has worked so well for so long, it seems like a daunting and dangerous road to head down. Rather just leave as is?

Where do you start (and end)

[zippy]

Look i will agree iran is a bit unknown but they have done nothing to make me think they want to blow countries up. If anything i find it remarkable that they have managed to put a nuclear power station online with all the restrictions they have been faced with and that is partly the reason i have soft spot for them. They refuse to bow down to bullies who have sanctioned them for 3 decades.

The biggest problem is people cannot see there are no good guys running this planet, they seem to have this good and bad take on life. Very few can handle the fact that there is pretty much no good.

Yea as you say the US does not care about iraqi, libyan,syrian etc people they just do whatever moves their agenda forward. Getting rid of enemies.

Iran is no threat to the US or Europe.

However, they have pretty clear about their intentions towards Israel.

As for your comment about the US doing whatever moves their agenda forward, seriously, are just trolling ? There isn't a country on the planet or in history that doesn't try to move their agenda forward. This is how international relations work. For you to constantly harp on about the americans, is tedious. They all do it. The Americans, Brits, Chinese, Russians, French, even south africans and brazilians. People think they don't. It's just lower key because their economies are less relevant than the others.

The only reason countries don't blow each other to bits is that the cost to themselves will be too great. In democracies there is the added constraint that voters will get very annoyed at their lives being disrupted by a war. People in a democracy will tolerate their country being at war as long it doesn't impact them. in a dictatorship, they are just happy to be alive, but at the first sniff of weakness in the regime, they will rise up(Arab spring). In all of these countries there are people who are strongly opposed, mildly opposed, couldn't care less, strongly supportive of their country being involved in wars. The US is no different. However, this balance gets destroyed when there is an event such as 9-11. In the US it has resulted in a shift of people who usually would no approve, to while not encouraging war, they aren't being vocal about opposing it.

You focus solely on the US. I would agree with a lot of what you say, but you carry on as if it's only the Americans and it's all their fault. Nobody here has any illusions as to your bias. You are so far up Putin's ass, it's embarrassing.

[killadoob]

Putin when have i even mentioned him? He is a good leader though, not into war mongering which is good. I'm not biased, biased is when you cannot see what is in front of you and i can. I know that america is no good but that doesn't mean i think the iranians or russians are heroes.

I don't idolize countries like you guys. I know there are no good guys only bad guys. America is very bad though. They try to come across as heroes but they are far from heroes.

When russia and iran are attacking country after country i will moan about them. When they moan about human rights and democracy while ignoring the same things elsewhere i will moan.

[empirex]

As for your comment about the US doing whatever moves their agenda forward, seriously, are just trolling ? There isn't a country on the planet or in history that doesn't try to move their agenda forward. This is how international relations work. For you to constantly harp on about the americans, is tedious. They all do it. The Americans, Brits, Chinese, Russians, French, even south africans and brazilians. People think they don't. It's just lower key because their economies are less relevant than the others.

There is one key difference though.

Those other countries don't invade sovereign nations; and neither do they somehow retain the reputation of being one of the democratic "good guys".

People harp on about the Americans because they are the most interventionist country in the world today, and have been over the last 20 years or more.

Are Russia or China the good guys? Heck no.

But China play a very different game.
Oil in Africa? They use strategic finance and trade to gain any resources they might need. The US just passes a law in congress based on nothing more than a propaganda film (Kony 2012) on some has-been warlord. Next it's drones in Africa to "find Kony".

There is little difference between Russia, America and China -- though it seems one of the key differences is spin, they know how to play the media game, put on a smiling face and lie to the camera. China just doesn't care; Russia does it half-assed, while America plays it like pros.

What's the difference between China, Russia and America? Body count.
And America leads by a mile.

[Garson007]

China, at least, actually invests into Africa - unlike the other major players.