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Iraq had chemical weapons for years. Hussein gassed plenty of Kurds, just imagine what he would have liked to do to Israel.

Keep in mind that it's only mass production of nukes that's really difficult to hide. It's tacky, but not impossible, to just steal or buy out of the black market enough U-235 to get critical mass for a bomb or two. After you get the uranium, it's just a matter of taping plastic explosives.

But like you said, the U.S. has nothing to worry about in itself. Iran doesn't have ICBMs. Probably the best range they have is off scud missiles, or a suicide bombing.

Is it our obligation to maintain peace in the world? Why was the U.N. made in the first place?

The better question is: does Iran, or North Korea for that matter, have enough oil for them to matter to us? I doubt we'll be engaging anyone else unilaterally. After all, Saddam is unique among all dictators in that he tried to kill dubya's daddy.

btw, i'm pretty sure that "Mission Accomplished" was requested by the personel on that carrier.

We should apply the same standard to our allies that we do to ourselves(We being the Lp). The Lps platform states that we should not go to war unless we are attacked first. What is wrong with expanding that to not going to war unless we or one of our allies is attacked first? If Iran does attack Isreal, (Does, not could, or might) then as Isreals ally, we would go to war. I seem to remember that the 1rst Gulf War went something like this. Iraq invaded Kuiat, we went to war with Iraq, and drove them out. There was no "Regime change," no "bringing democracy to the Middle East" or any of that crap. We merly defended Kuait against an agressor nation. Unfourtunatly, I don't see any war launched by THIS Administration being that reasonable. But thats my thoughts on Iran. We wait until they DO attack us, or Isreal, or the new Iraqi government, then we would be justified in going to war, though I would not support regime change as a goal of that war.

i believe that iran may actually want to have a peaceful nuclear program. if they want one then let them have it just have them supervised. there is no way we can prevent them from makeing peoples lives better with electricity and stuff. if you think about it those countries have hated isreal for years. nothing will change that immediately. their leader doesnt believe in the holocost? dont people here believe it was a hoax?(i personally believe it happened) maybe over time he will see it did happen who knows but i do know they will get more hostile the more we treat them like little children. besides if they tried to attack isreal, isreal themselves have hundreds of nuclear warheads. we will only go deeper in the hole if we attack them. think about it, the russians had thousands of nuclear warheads pointing at america daily during the cold war. and there was never one launched. if you leave people alone they wont bother you.

we already screwed up iran in 1953, iran will hate us forever if we go in and screw them up again. then they will stop at nothing to kill us.

what if it ends up being another iraq and we go in and they have no means of making/transporting a nuclear warhead in the first place? america will be up the creek without a paddle for sure cuz no one will ever respect our ideals ever again.

It seems as though reason has finally prevailed in this case. Iran has reached a nuclear deal with the United States, agreeing to limit it's nuclear activites in exchange for a lifting of those sanctions we've been imposing on them for the past, what 20 years or so? Of course, the war hawks and anti-diplomacy people heave already begun attacking it, because they never wanted to reach an agreement with Iran in the first place. They were probably holding out for some sort of unconditional surrender, total dismantling of all of Irans nuclear facilities, and the removal of all nuclear material from Iran. The thought that we reached an AGREEMENT to only LIMIT Irans nuclear program to peaceful purposes, which is what they claimed it was ALL ALONG, must have been a terrible blow to their egos. Thankfully, their wounded pride didn't stop the deal from going through.