by Joe Baaklini

Created on: December 22, 2011   Last Updated: December 23, 2011

Is the United States in a collision course with Iran? Is another war in the Middle East of interests to US national security? What would the cost be to the United States if it initiated a regional war?

For the past few months if not years, the United States policy toward Iran has been growing steadily toward a showdown with the Islamic Republic of Iran. As the lead in accusing Iran of secretly working on developing nuclear weapons, the United States does not seem to have credible evidence to support those allegations. In 2007, the US intelligence community indicated that Iran is no longer pursuing nuclear weapons. However, in 2011, the US policymakers drastically began to shift gears toward renewing such accusations. What really happened that made the intelligence report produced in 2007 not a credible source in the eyes of Washington.

Although the IAEA report as of October 2011 did not have any substantial evidence of Iran nuclear activities, the United States and the Europeans were quick to use it to tighten tougher sanctions on Iran. Does the United States or the Europeans have the moral and legal justifications for such positions? Based on the IAEA report, one would argue that the rush to sanctions is rather peculiar as it lacks the sufficient evidence. Even the US intelligence agencies did not produce such reports on their own making the allegations suspicious to say the least. Why the CIA or the US defense establishments did not produce such reports with their names clearly attached. Are they worried about a repetition of the Iraq debacle that took place in 2003? I think there is legitimacy to such a claim.

If that is the case then why would US policymakers push for tighter sanctions if not for outright covert operations, scientists’ assassination, and even an outright full scale war? Why would America again commit itself to a war that may add little to our national interests? Haven’t we learned already from our mistakes in Iraq? Is the blood of our soldiers worth nothing to American policymakers in Washington? Hasn’t the cost of the Iraqi adventure cost us over 4,500 lives and close to one trillion in taxpayers money?

Even if Iran was able to build a nuclear bomb, how would that impact our national security? I believe the answer is none. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union were racing for nuclear weapons to wipe each other out and yet none of that took place as the destruction of one definitely meant

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