I'm wearing my political scientist hat, and recommending this New York Times article which both TODAY and The Straits Times carried (Sept 11).
ST headlined it "So what if Iran gets the bomb?" while TODAY's headline was "Can the world live with a Persian Bomb?".
Hmm, I wonder if people react differently to the words "Iran" and "Persian"? Do they associate the former with ayatollahs, mullahs, radical Islamic regime, etc? Are they more positive towards the latter, conjuring up images of beautiful Persian cats, a great ancient civilization, etc?
Whatever, the article by Bill Keller eschews the usual hype about a Doomsday scenario if Iran/Persia actually gets the Bomb and it suggests a third option to (a) passively/helplessly looking the other way and (b) rashly trying to bomb the nuclear sh*t out of the regime.
Here's Keller's conclusion:
The third choice in this case is to negotiate a deal that lets Iran enrich uranium for civilian use (as it is entitled to do under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty), that applies rigorous safeguards (because Iran cheats), that gradually relaxes sanctions and brings this wayward country into the community of more-or-less civilised nations.
That, of course, will not happen before November. Any US concession now would be decried by Republicans as an abandonment of Israel and a reward to a government that recently beat a democracy movement bloody.
We can only hope that after the election we get some braver, more creative diplomacy, either from a liberated Obama or (hope springs eternal) a President Romney who has a Nixon-to-China moment.
For the full article, here's the TODAY link:
http://www.todayonline.com/World/EDC120911-0000035/Can-the-world-live-with-a-Persian-Bomb
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Today being the 11th anniversary of 9/11, a friend sent me this documentary video on the raid on Osama bin Laden's lair which killed the mastermind of the attacks on NY and DC. The video is quite long, though (over 90 minutes)...
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?feature=pladetailpage&v=kN8K2RPXfXc
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