This morning, CNN and MSNBC (the only two news channels I really watch anymore, although CNBC has started appealing to me) were both covering a story originally broadcast on Iranian state-run news station INSA. According to Iran's news network, the military has successfully tested their new set of long range missiles.
This, unfortunately has both presidential candidates on the defensive. Despite the fact that all of the press gathered from Iran's leaders has been discussion about protecting the country from threats, both candidates are already discussing more tough economic sanctions.
This brings up two important issues in my eyes. The first, which I discussed in a previous blog in response to Bill Richardson, is the effectiveness and ethical implications of economic sanctions. The second, which I think I have yet to discuss in a blog, is whether we can consider Iran a dangerous nation at all.
When people talk of Iran, they usually talk about how much President Ahmadinejahd threatens Israel and the west in speeches. Rarely, however, do they discuss this in light of the speeches in which our president and congresspeople constantly make threats (either direct or conditional) to Iran, North Korea, and various other countries who don't cater to the whim of the American economic machine.
But that's all talk. Very rarely do we take our politicians at their word, so why should we take Iran at its words? For true proof of how evil Iran really is (and how good the US is), we must look at their deeds.
Given that the current government has only been around for 29 years (someone has a 30th birthday coming up...), I think it's only fair to compare these nations over that length of time.
Since the Iranian revolution in 1979, Iran has been in only one external military conflict. From 1980-1988, the Iranian military was engaged at war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq after the then-U.S.-supported Iraq attempted to invade the young nation.
Since the Iran-Iraq war, Iran has not been in military conflict.
The United States, on the other hand, has been involved in nine external military struggles since 1979 (ten, if you count the US involvement in working with the Armed Forces of the Philippines to combat the Al-Qa'ida threat there). Since the end of the Iran-Iraq war, the US has been engaged in seven external military conflicts.
The United States is the only country to have ever used a nuclear weapon and the only country to use toxic herbicidal agents orange, purple, pink and green in military conflict. Iran, on the other hand, has never used nuclear devices or toxic chemicals in any military action.
So who's the real threat?
