From Time Magazine:
When U.S. officials appeal to the Iranian people over the heads of its regime, they like to assume that Tehran's defiance on the nuclear issue reflects only the extremist position of an unrepresentative revolutionary leadership. Plainly, they haven't met Dr. Akbar Etemad, who ran the nuclear program of the Shah's regime, which was overthrown in the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The scientist who first launched Iran's nuclear technology program under a U.S.-backed regime in 1974 today urges the regime that stripped him of his job to reject any international demand that it halt uranium enrichment.
Dr. Etemad told an academic conference in Toronto last weekend, "Iran already stopped nuclear enrichment at the behest of Europe for more than a year [a reference to Tehran's suspension of enrichment between late 2003 and mid-2005, to allow negotiations with the European Union]. And what happened? Nothing."
Read more ....
My Comment: In the past month I have had a few posts on Iran's nuclear enrichment program. The comments and emails that I received on those posts surprised me. They were 100% supportive of Iran's nuclear drive.
I personally hold a different view, but not for the reasons that supporters of Iran may think. A nuclear program opens a can of worms that will not provide the benefits that supporters may think it may bring. Safeguards against disaster, security issues, environmental concerns, nuclear waste products, and the most important of them all .... painting a big bull-eye on ones country for conducting a program of nuclear enrichment IN SECRET was and is not the way to go. The hope- for benefits from such a program will not cover even a fraction of the costs that sanctions and international isolation will bring.
The best policy for Iran was to be up front in the beginning on what they were doing. That if they were honest in their intent they would then have had nothing to hide. But having their clandestine nuclear program leaked to the international media by Iranian dissidents changed these dynamics completely. I cannot say that I am surprised.
Iran is not a homogeneous country that is 100% Persian. There are numerous ethnic and religious groups in Iran that are not sympathetic with the Regime. To consolidate their power, the government has always appealed to the nationalistic element within their population. Like all insecure governments, it is easy to blame foreigners for ones problems .... that if given the chance the Americans will install a puppet government in their country that will exploit the people and their resources. Decades of this propaganda has made it easy for people to believe that this is true. Nationalism, a lousy history with the west, coupled with a religious faith that is now hostile to foreigners, has made this effort even easier.
Among the Persian population of Iran, I believe support for the nuclear enrichment program probably runs at 90%. This will not change. But as Libya's Qadaffi mentioned a few days ago, Iran is the arrogant one who believes that they are immune to what world public opinion wants and believes in.
I expect comprehensive sanctions will be applied to Iran in the next few months. Banking, trade, and even limiting Iranian oil sales will also be applied .... even if it means higher oil prices. Iraq's oil sales were limited for a decade .... there is no reason to believe that Iran cannot be limited also. The impact on Iran will not be immediate, but over the years they will start to bite.
The Iranians will have their nuclear enrichment program, but the economic and social costs are going to be heavy. But the real cost to the Iranian people will be the realization that if Iranian nuclear material should ever be found in a dirty bomb and/or atomic bomb attack, the retaliation against their country will put Persian culture and society back into the stone age.
If one trusts one government to act responsibly, there should be no worries. The problem is that the Iranian Government has made it very clear on what they want to do in the world. It is this public stand on their part that makes this current situation the crisis that it is.
