Mehdi Hasan have you ever thought people might listen to you a bit more if you just chilled out a bit.

Freeman, I think it's more likely that you drag Israel into your responses to my comments because my name is Rosenthal which means I must be a fanatical Zionist whose only objective is to oppress Palestinians, just as the Nazis regarded anyone with a Jewish name as being part of the Great Jewish Conspiracy to take over the world.

And perhaps I am more anxious about countries like Iran having WMD because those in charge are sworn to wiping Israel off the map and do not fear the mutually assured destruction of using nuclear weapons, believing as they do that they will become martyrs in an Islamic Paradise.

And incidentally, I hadnt noticed your surname, so my comment is in no way influenced by anti-semitic undertones.

Great stuff yet again Mehdi... We need to look at the bigger picture. Israel is a greater threat to global stability than any other country in the region.

Israel actually has WMD-chemical and nuclear and has conducted more wars in the region than any other country.

The original zionist aim of a homeland for all (european!) jews, died years ago.

This is because although the jewish disaspora may empthasise with Israel, they have no intention of living there.

The matter is further complicated by the fact that the jewish population of Israel is now more diverse, not only ethnically and religiously, but now includes many non-jewish jews, who only said they were jews to escape Russia.

Also because of the conflict Israel now has a large Asian population to do the jobs that Israelis don't want to do and the Palestinians are prevented from doing.

And of course the more Israel expands, the more non-jews and Palestinians will be included within its borders!

In other words a complete mess if the objective is a jewish state at peace with its neighbours!

Despite all the hullabaloo made by the Israel bashing forum, the fact remainst that most Western governments would trust Israel a hundred times more than they would trust the Ayatollas in Iran.

Israel has legitimate defense concerns, as it is repeatedly being threatened with destruction by Iran and its proxy armies (Hamas and Hizbullah). On the other hand, most Western leaders wouldn't trust Ahmedinejad as far as they could throw him.

Buckskins,

It seemed the Iraqi people did not much like the US concept of freedom imposed on them. As Bill Major pointed out perhaps you should watch the Secret Iraq documentary on iplayer to discover why they resisted G W Bush wish to "set them free"

mitchy, if you had given proper attention to my comment you will have noted that I referred to "those in charge of Iran" not to the Iranian people, for whom I have the utmost sympathy.

With regards to the "Memo to John: .,.he wasn't even a threat to his neighbours" Whoever said this should repeat this statement to Kuwait and its people that suffered $billion in economic losses and to the families of hundreds, maybe thousands, of dead and missing Kuwaitis that Saddam's army left behind when they invaded Kuwait.

these same sick twisted individuals who took us into a war with iraq are now setting and preparing the groundwork for a invasion of iran, remember these wars are planned well in advance with help of the media to brainwash us in to believing this nation wants to harm us and poses a direct threat to us, fear is a very powerful tool in this day and age the same way iraq wanted to harm us now its irans turn than it will be some other country in the middle east, i honestly believe some people get of on watching dead children scattered every were cause that is what war brings, we point fingers at irans human rights abuses look at the abuses at the hands of the occupiers in iraq and afghanistan and than of course the abuses and murders the occupiers got away with what never made in to the news i dont support wars or invasions never have and never will cause its all ways the women and children that pay the ultimate price and it makes us less safer at home...

Stan Rosenthal: 'Freeman, I think it's more likely that you drag Israel into your responses to my comments because my name is Rosenthal which means I must be a fanatical Zionist whose only objective is to oppress Palestinians, just as the Nazis regarded anyone with a Jewish name as being part of the Great Jewish Conspiracy to take over the world.'

If I gave that impression then I can only apologise. I brought Israel into it because I assumed you were responding to 'Not even the most hawkish Israeli general or American spook has claimed that Iran possesses weapons of mass destruction.'

Actually the only country we need to o to war with is Saudi Arabia....ubfortunately look at what Bush and Obama do. Its all because of money, honey.

Iraq had no WMDs, but was bombed anyway.So Iran thinks, if they bomb you anyway, we may as well get some WMDs.

And Iran thinks, they keep making economic war with us, so they have hostile intentions, so we may as well get some WMDs.

And Iran thinks, they keep attacking our neighbours and surrounding us with their troops and threatening to attack us, so we may as well get some WMDs.

In other words Iran is being pushed into acquiring WMDs, not deterred.

Except the iranians believe their conventional forces make them strong and that WMD would undermine their security.

This is logical because acquiring WMDs would alarm their neighbours(start an arms race)and take resources away from their conventional forces and domestic needs.

Therefore for the neo-cons to keep demanding Iran end its non-existent WMD programme, is counter-productive, unless of course it is just being used as a pretext for war, just like Iraq WMDs.

If they really want Iran to end its non-existent WMD programme they need to respect the Iranians and make peace.

Problem is the neo-cons fear peace, and prefer war! Their ideas are the problem, not the solution.

Oh come on Stan! Are you seriously suggesting that, as a nation, the Iranians are all quite happy to acquire and use nukes on Israel, knowing full well what the response to that would be? I dont believe for a moment that an entire nation would sign up to such insanity, and I don't believe you are in a position to make such sweeping generalisations.
Israel has nukes to ensure its survival, is it so much of a stretch to believe that Iran wouldn't want the same to protect itself from an invasion? There are other examples of oppressive or despotic nations around the world which are not invaded by the west, despite being considered enemies of the west, primarily because they have a nuclear deterent I'll wager (N Korea & Pakistan to name two).