No apologies needed Fairminded. Actually we agree more than disagree. I disagree with the USA’s past meddling in the ME and wish we were oil independent so we could let someone else take care of the mess there. I do not want to start a war with Iran. I do not know what I would do if I was President of the USA. I would use as many black ops, sanctions, and ‘carrots’ as I could to keep the Iranians from getting nuclear weapons. We have been doing this for years and they still persist in build ‘the bomb’. Neither Bush nor Obama have wanted to attack Iran. I don’t blame them. Israel is even worse off. They have been fighting their enemies who want to destroy them for over 60 years and now their most vocal enemy, Iran, and the one who has been the greatest supporter of the terrorists against Israel, is about to get nuclear weapons.Fairminded
I'll admit, I don't like the thought of nukes in Iran's hands. I'm afraid of nuclear devices in the hands of any of our enemies. Heck, I'm afraid of nuclear devices in the hands of our friends. For that matter, even our own nuclear devices scare me.
I've seen plenty of horror movies of nuclear holocaust, the grisly destruction, the sickness and suffering and death. I've watched documentaries of the aftermath at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The very notion of nuclear weapons is horrifying, and you'd have to be insane not to be afraid of them.
But isn't it equally insane to let that fear lead you to going to war? Like a woman castrating her husband because she's afraid he's molesting the kids, or a man shooting a minority because he's afraid of being mugged. Committing atrocities because you're afraid of something bad happening is an old and familiar evil, and one I don't subscribe to.
Even the scriptures say that letting your fears rule you isn't part of God's plan. 2 Timothy 1:7 reads “For God has not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
The American people have let fear rule them for decades now. We've let fear bring us into unconstitutional wars halfway across the world, we've let fear keep us from protesting as the people in power take away our liberties and blatantly grab power and wealth. We've even let evil men use fear to manipulate us into hating who they want us to hate.
I don't believe God wants us living our lives in fear, or willingly or by inaction allowing atrocities to happen motivated by fears.
I think at this point, OMD, you and I are going to have to agree to disagree. I think you're an honorable man who has a strong love of this country and feels a fierce desire to defend it. I have no desire to get into a personal quarrel with you based on our opinions, and I apologize for any personal attacks I've made in the past. I'll try to keep my eyes open and look at the views you represent fairly in a search for any truth to be found. Let's leave it at that, shall we?
I believe that Israel is being set up with a no win situation to start WW III. Don’t attack Iranian Nuke sites and have Israeli cities targeted with nuclear strikes or do a pre-emptive attack and save their cities but start a regional war which could easily go global. No easy decision. IMO this is the plan of the LDGs.
From what I know right now, if I was President, I would back Israel if they decided to attack the nuke sites OR if they decided to NOT to attack the sites. They have more skin in the game and would lose more of a percentage of their populace than we would if a nuke went off here. If we had a reliable anti-missile shield up over Israel it would make a no-go decision easier. They have Iron Dome which was designed against slower missiles but they aren’t sure it would take out a big ballistic missile. If the Israelis had a defense against Iranian missile then that would be one scenario off the table.
Free and fair elections in Iran would be the best possible solution. The people of Iran are just like you and me and just want to live in peace to raise their families. Unfortunately they have extremists running the show.