Understanding the fears of others

AlterNet: The Peace Movement's Plan For Iran

Finally, an analysis about the situation in Iran that states the obvious: Iran wants the bomb because it is threatened by the United States on all sides.

Iran finds itself surrounded on all four sides by American military power -- Iraq to the west, Afghanistan to the east, U.S. bases in Central Asia to the north, and the mighty US Navy in the Persian Gulf to the south...Iran looks west, and sees an Iraq that opened itself to unprecedented international intrusions, did not in fact possess weapons of mass destruction, and got itself invaded for its trouble. Iran looks east, and sees a North Korea that built a nuclear arsenal in secret, and now appears to be successfully deterring any hint of American aggression.

What would you do, if you were Tehran?

And might I add, it looks east again and sees an India that has just been crowned regional superpower by the United States because it too has the bomb.

Now, while I'm sure the U.S. is "war gaming" different types of a potential attack against Iran as this Alternet article suggests, those war games are not looking good when it comes to our sabre-rattling -- and that was before Amahdinejad got elected.

Basically, our choices are we either accept that Iran is going to get the bomb, or we give it as many incentives as possible to remain nuclear-free.

If you threaten your adversaries, they'll threaten you back. If you make your neighbors more secure, you make yourself more secure. The basis of peace is understanding the fears of others

So, how do we make Iran more secure? Formal non-agression pacts. Restore diplomatic relations that were cut in 1979. Insist that Israel enter the Nuclear Non-proliferation treaty. And most important of all, lead by example and get rid of our own nuclear stockpile.

You know, planks in your own eye and specks in your brother's and all that.