Majority of Americans think Iran has The Bomb
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A whopping 71 percent of Americans believe that Iran currently has nuclear weapons, according to a recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey.
More than six in ten think the U.S. should take economic and diplomatic efforts to get Iran to shut down their nuclear program, with only a quarter calling for immediate military action.
I like this part: “with only a quarter calling for immediate military action.” I probably would have written something like, “HOLY SHIT! DID YOU HEAR 25 PERCENT OF THE COUNTRY WANTS TO BOMB IRAN RIGHT NOW??” But whatever. Blasé works too, I guess.
In reality, Iran doesn’t have The Bomb. They have a small amount of refined uranium (19.5%, cutely rounded up to 20% by NRO’s Mark Steyn), which is allowed under the treaty that they have signed. This is the refinement level for use in medical facilities and supplying electricity. There is little evidence they’re working on a nuclear warhead, which would require a much higher level of refinement, and the so-called evidence that exists is highly speculative. Additionally, their supreme leader/commander-in-chief continues to decry nukes as illegal in Islamic law.
Juan Cole reports that the IAEA is at least allowing for the possibility that documents allegedly found on a laptop some years ago –but discounted by the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency as being of “dubious provenance and incompatible with other intelligence gathered in Iran — point to a nuclear weapons program that no one has been able to locate.”
The source of these charges was not identified, but many close observers believe it is Israel, a country that possesses nuclear weapons, supports the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, and performs cross-border assassinations, and has long advocated two propaganda points: The 2007 NIE report on Iran is wrong, and Tehran is poised to build nukes. Meanwhile, some observers have concluded that the so-called laptop smoking gun is a forgery.
Of course, concocting forged documents to lead America into war is a familiar tradition. Supposed copiously documented evidence of Nigerian yellowcake uranium was the “evidence” used to lead the US into Iraq.
I agree with Cole when he says the IAEA has the right to be frustrated with Iran, which has certainly not been totally transparent. But frustration with the Iranian regime, which – for some reason — has been hesitant to openly share every detail about its refinement program with a country that is busily bombing or occupying four nearby countries, does not mean Iran has nuclear weapons.
The US intelligence community publicly stress that Iran has no nuclear weapons program. It’s important to repeat that message, especially when the US population is confused (a media-reinforced stupor that allowed them to be easily corralled into supporting the Iraq invasion).
Russia’s General of the Army and Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Nikolay Makarov, warns that an American attack on Iran now — when the US is already bogged down in two wars (if we’re not counting the offensives in Pakistan and Yemen) — might well lead to the collapse of the United States.
One needn’t be a Russian General to see how that’s possible. The US economy is in terrible shape. What was left of the nation’s treasure went to bail out the financial sector. Unemployment may be at 10 percent until the end of the year, one in six Americans is unemployed or underemployed, and one in ten is on food stamps.
Now is the time to pull out of the Middle East and focus what’s left of America’s resources on repairing domestic damage – not to escalate the US’s imperialist agenda by attacking Iran over highly dubious claims, a decision that would unleash unimaginable destruction and potentially send the US into an irreversible tailspin (if we’re not there already).
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Thank you for pointing out the level of refinment of Iran’s Unranium- it never gets pointed out ,or even explained, in the MSM. You can go further and point out that the Iranians have no Plutonium. Almost all atomic bombs ever made have been implosion types, which require Plutonium; other than Little Boy, and a few artillery shell bombs for the abortive (and idiotic) atomic cannon of the 50’s, nobody has ever even built a Uranium (gun-type) bomb, not even the North Koreans. This is important, because if the Iranians were creating Plutonium, the IAEA and every major intelligence agency in the world would know it, with certainty. This is all Wikipedia-level stuff, and wouldn’t be too difficult for the MSM to at least try to explain. Of course, they probably wouldn’t have much success explaining it to those upright Americans who don’t believe in Evolution, or the Heliocentric solar system, and who always seem to want to see somebody killed, just because.
“HOLY SHIT! DID YOU HEAR 25 PERCENT OF THE COUNTRY WANTS TO BOMB IRAN RIGHT NOW??” Those are YOUR words. Did you clowns ever do any research on who those 25% are or where they come from or the REAL number of people that were surveyed who now represent the glorious 25% that now want to start World War 3 and NUKE Iran ?? YOU MORONIC ASSHOLES !
Instead of glorifying these 25% “IQ less than a grapefruit” crowd along with the master brain consortium at the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation who actually did this lunacy research, someone should actually figure out the right questions to ask that would PROVE – once and for all – That Iran and most of it’s middle-eastern neighbors DON’T WANT nuclear weapons to blow up anyone. The END OF DAYS crowd like John Bolton and Dick Cheeeney and all the dribbling teevee preachers that scream for you to send them money so they can print some more hate materials to ferment even more hate are provably goofy as loons and really need to be put in homes for the criminally insane????
Once again, your words “Russia’s General of the Army and Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Nikolay Makarov, warns that an American attack on Iran now — when the US is already bogged down in two wars (if we’re not counting the offensives in Pakistan and Yemen) — might well lead to the collapse of the United States.”.. IF the party of “no” continues to bark and spit vile; folks like ricky ‘man-on-dog’ sanatorium continues to be a public voice; NeoNut media ranters of all stripes seemingly continue to exhibit sway over the weak and clearly brainless; and, IQ’s of our children and their companions continues to eroded because we won’t take the time to review the filth and twisted belief systems the ‘instructors’ of our system tell us is now ‘great material’ for the education of our next generation (all from religious right-wing zealots in texas posing as educators). The predictions of the Russian general will absolutely come to pass. And soon!
Mr Winski,
In response to another comment. See in context »You do grapefruit a grave injustice. I have yet to find one that wants to bomb anybody!
Everybody hide under the bed.
[...] I bet most of them would be unable to find the country on a map. In addition, according to a recent CNN poll, an astounding 71 percent of Americans believe Iran currently has nuclear weapons, a belief that is [...]
It’s strange but for some reason I would not expect to see this kind of analysis in the New York Times or on Fix News.
I guess truth has no place in the MSM anymore.
Most Americans pine for the good old days of the Cold War missile crisis.
God Bless Our Fallout Shelter.
This is just stupid. The majority of this country, who probably don’t know enough about Iran to spell ‘Tehran’ correctly, have convinced themselves Iran has nuclear weapons.
And now, just as the Democratic Party machine used antiwar sentiment to unseat Republicans in 2006, the Republicans will ride a wave of jingoism and Iran-paranoia to success in 2010 and 2012. And the Obama administration and Tim Kaine don’t seem to have the testicular fortitude to fight back properly.
Man, I cut alcohol out of my diet a few months ago to lose weight and decided to stretch it into a year as a lifestyle experiment. God, am I regretting that now.
It makes no sense to attack Iran. They aren’t an ideal vacation spot for sure, but they are far from a threat to us. This is just my opinion obviously but the fact that so many Americans think Iran is a nuclear threat really says something about our pathetic news organizations.
I am warming on the war with Iran. It would rapidly bring oil prices back up to 140 bucks a barrel, and facilitate the fall of the US government. It might even tip us over to 200 dollars a barrel. Our society stops working at 200 dollars a barrel because globilization, airplanes, fertilizer based agriculture, and the trucking industry shut down all at once. I don’t get much out of there being a functioning civil society right now, so maybe I won’t miss it in the future. Yeah, I might have to turn cannibal, but it beats paying student loans!
[...] Majority of Americans think Iran has the bomb by Allison Kilkenny [...]
[...] nicht in der Lage, dass Land auf einer Karte zu finden.Zusätzlich glauben laut einer Umfrage von CNN erstaunliche 71% der Amerikaner, dass der Iran gegenwärtig Nuklearwaffen besitzt, eine Annahme, [...]
[...] I bet most of them would be unable to find the country on a map. In addition, according to a recent CNN poll, an astounding 71 percent of Americans believe Iran currently has nuclear weapons, a belief that is [...]
And 45% of Americans believed Saddam was behind 9/11.
When the Empire decides to wage war, it finds a way to manipulate the public, no matter which big-government/big-business party is in power.
Remind me again why we had an election in 2008?
[...] "Majority of Americans think Iran has The Bomb#," is from True/Slant (2/20/10). [...]
[...] even be interested in profit, shock horror!!! It is also worrying that the propaganda has worked- 71 percent of Americans believe that Iran currently has nuclear weapons. Shirin Ebadi a Nobel Laureate like Mr. Obama has said- FT.com:- The United Nations should focus [...]