Why not? Assuming for a moment it did, an Iranian nuclear arsenal would have the effect of restoring a long-absent balance of power in the region. Its leadership exhibit a market absence of suicidal propensities- in the main because suicide bombing is an expression of a particular set of political circumstances, not an Islamic idiom, and can be found in terrorist groups both secular and religious. To associate the two is both fallacious and ahistorical in the extreme. You might as well argue that the Soviet Union or the PRC would be more than willing to commit the nuclear equivalent of a suicide attack because of analogous actions by the Marxist Tamil Tigers.

Also, I think we have to act on the assumption that they are. Clearly if they were developing nuclear weapons they would not tell us, they would deny it.

So would any country developing nuclear weapons with aggressive intent, but “guilty until proven innocent” is not a valid precept in the realm of law and is arbitrarily applied here- unless, of course, you would have the great powers make the same assumption of every hitherto non-nuclear state in existence. So this isn’t an argument for anything. It is sheer question-begging.

And it makes logical sense that the would in fact want nuclear weapons. Why wouldn’t they? Israel, Pakistan, and India already have nuclear weapons so it makes sense to me that Iran would want them too.

Cui Bono is also not definitive proof.

As for the fatwa you mentioned. Do you have more details on that?

http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050412130710.kizyij2s.html

In any event I would not take that too seriously because Islamic radicals believe that it is perfectly permissible to lie to non-Muslims so they may have just done that to get our guard down.

A fatwa is much more than a declaration of intent. It is a religious opinion by a scholar of Islam that possesses great importance. To violate this fatwa would destroy the Ayatollah’s credibility as a religious scholar. See the wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatwa

You make a cogent arguement for your position. I concede the point that there is certainly doubt as to whether or not Iran is trying to get nuclear weapons. Perhaps for the moment they are not, but should we allow them the means to quickly do so, should they decide to? Also,I think we have to act on the assumption that they are. Clearly if they were developing nuclear weapons they would not tell us, they would deny it.

And it makes logical sense that the would in fact want nuclear weapons. Why wouldn’t they? Israel, Pakistan, and India already have nuclear weapons so it makes sense to me that Iran would want them too. As for the fatwa you mentioned. Do you have more details on that? In any event I would not take that too seriously because Islamic radicals believe that it is perfectly permissible to lie to non-Muslims so they may have just done that to get our guard down.

That is, a given level of criticism of Israel will get a non-Jew labeled “anti-Semite”, where as that same level of criticism coming from a Jew is less likely to get him or her labeled “self-hating Jew”.

And anyway, the “anti-Semite” smear carries a much heavier stigma.

Again, this is not about Israel. I truly feel that nuclear weapons in the hands of Islamic radicals presents a severe and unacceptable threat to the national security of the United States. I do not fear the former Soviet Union and the thousands of nuclear weapsons she has as much as I do even one nuclear weapon in the hands of an Islamic fanatic. The threat of Islamic terrorists using nuclear weapons is much greater than the threat we faced in the cold war. “Mutually Assured Destruction” or “MAD” as they say does not apply to Islamic zealots. An Islamic fanatic has no fear of death and so he would most happily and readily give up his life in order to use a nuclear bomb against “infidels.” It is bad enough that a relatively unstable government in Pakistan now has nuclear weapson, do we want to make the problem even worse.

Unfortunlty, people generally only close the stable door after the horse is out of the barn. Unless, heaven forbid, we turn on CNN and see a mushroom cloud over what used to be a major American or European city, people will not wake up to the severity of the threat.