Posted by AuntieMel on February 2, 2006, at 9:32:43
In reply to okay so maybe i'm missing something..., posted by alexandra_k on February 1, 2006, at 16:48:14
"... but why can't iran have nuclear weapons?"
My opinion - you *are* missing something.
In general I think the goal is to stop anyone who doesn't already have atomic weapons from getting them.
But in this particular case, the new Pres of Iran has sworn to obliterate Israel, is teaching in the schools that the holocaust never happened, etc,
It's a bit more urgent to stop countries that have sworn to blow up other ones, don't you think?
There are multiple grades of uranium. Iran wants what is called "weapons grade" - which *can* be refined into nuclear weapons. Other grades will produce power just as well, but they don't want them.
If they only wanted power grade uranium nobody would be saying anything.
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"ps. it isn't 'our' environment it is 'the' environment. not just for us but for our future generations too. and for years now... the us has been f*cking it up for the other present citizens of the world too... still. it would be good to see a shift away from dinosaur fuels. but... ethanol sounds expensive to me..."
Granted the environment isn't the highest priority for the current administration, but I wouldn't go quite that far.
When the iron curtain fell and the eastern bloc countries got their freedom one of their biggest problems was pollution. A large (very large) part of the aid given by the US was for the specific purpose of cleaning that up.
On my first trip to Poland, in 1993, the soot in the air was amazing. The snow was black, everything needed dusting twice a day, the buildings were covered with layers of it, the sky was brown.
I go back there now and see cleaned buildings, white snow and blue skies. US money at work.
But I guess that kind of stuff doesn't make the news, does it.
poster:AuntieMel
thread:605246
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20051121/msgs/605440.html