"Evil" Iran and oil

Miles Seeley tries to justify the US hard line on Iran:"There are several ways to view Bush's inclusion of Iran in "The Axis of Evil" (a most unfortunate term). The most common is to decry it because we should be encouraging moderate Iranians, not labeling them thus. On the other hand, we have spent years trying to encourage the moderates, to little avail. The President is a moderate but has no power Ayatollah Khameiny is weak.. From what I read, it is hard to say who really runs things, but the hard-line religious mullahs probably win out. Hezbullah, I think all would agree, is almost entirely supported by Iran, and that support does not seem to have diminished. So.....Hezbullah is a terrorist organization as much as Al Qaeda is. Iran shields and supports Hezbullah. Therefore Iran is qualified to make the list.

It is also possible that moderate Iranians will see that as long as this situation prevails in their country, it will remain opposed by the US. That, they may conclude, is not good for them, and the mullahs must be de-fanged. As for the Europeans, it is their choice to sit more or less on the sidelines and criticize. They have done it before. The results speak for themselves. If they feel they have been relegated to the bench by the US, perhaps it is time for them to get back in the game. Sometimes it is lonely at the top.

My rebuttal: This is bad psychology. It would have been quite different if Bush had simply encouraged the moderate elements. Also, remember your own defense of the Arabs vis-a-vis Israel. The world cannot understand how the US can condemn Iran when it connives with Israel, which has weapons of mass destruction and defies the UN with the support of the US exclusively. Everybody is out of step but Johnnie.

Ronald Hilton - 2/27/02