From Buck on October 9th, 2008
Polls are a funny thing. They can be manipulated to serve a specific purpose and the meaning of the results skewed accordingly. I think if the questions were posed like "Do you think our country should eliminate nuclear weapons even if this country still keeps them?" or "Should our government pursue nuclear weapons while these countries still have them?" or "Should our country still have them if this country that has relations with and a history of supporting terrorists is developing them?"
In fact I've seen such polls, and there are very different results (unfortunately I can't remember where I saw them).
The thing with Iran is no one really has a problem with them creating the tech for power. But there are much smaller amounts of fuel needed for energy than weapons. Iran was processing much more than would be necessary for energy alone, and this is what the concern is.
Also did you know that McCain has supported dismantling our nuclear arsenal, dismantling in something like 10 years (can't remember exactly what it was)? The trouble with the space race and nukes is it's like a game of chicken where both sides would disarm but no one wants to risk being the first. Anyway, I better get back to class!
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Identity – Citizen’s Constitution
11 years ago
a somewhat interesting and completely overlooked fact is that the U.S. actually started Iran on their nuclear development program in the 1950s (and support continued until the fall of the shah in 1979) with their 'Atoms for Peace' program.
ReplyDeletealso, Iran has granted intrusive and snap inspections of its facilities to the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) since 2003. in October of 2007 the head of the IAEA, Mohamed El Baradei stated he had seen "no evidence" of Iran developing nuclear weapons: "Have we seen Iran having the nuclear material that can readily be used into a weapon? No. Have we seen an active weaponization program? No."
El Baradei said he was worried about the growing rhetoric from the U.S., which he noted focused on Iran's alleged intentions to build a nuclear weapon rather than evidence the country was actively doing so. El Baradi said if there is actual evidence he would welcome seeing it...