Iran's Nuclear Facility Should Be Bombed?

Iran's Nuclear Facility Should Be Bombed?

While it is encouraging to see hundreds of thousands of protesters in the streets of Tehran the current Iranian regime will in no way allow a peaceful revolution to occur. Anything short of a massive violent uprising on all fronts will fail to change the gangster regime in Iran.

Americans must not be misled, we face hard choices when it comes to Iran. If the U.S., or Israel bombs Iranian nuclear facilities we will make enemies of those who protest for greater freedom today, and at most we can expect to delay the Iranians from developing nuclear weapons by ten years.

It can be argued that any regime that uses murder squads, and worse to suppress its own people's peaceful desire for change should not be trusted with nuclear weapons. Iran would not be the first dictatorship to develop nuclear weapons. The Soviet Union and modern day Russia, China, and North Korea are all examples of dictatorships with nuclear weapons, and none of these regimes have used those weapons in an actual war - yet.

So what is there to do? What should the Obama administration do about North Korea, and Iran?

Should we bomb these regime's nuclear weapons facilities? And if we do, what will be the consequences?

I haven't made up my mind. I can certainly hope that diplomacy will somehow work to dissuade Iran and North Korea from further development of their nuclear stockpile, but I suspect that diplomacy will fail, and time is running out.

Do we live in a world in which North Korea shipped nuclear tipped intermediate and long range missiles to every nation which can afford it? Is that the kind of world we want? A world in which every petty dictator can extort every nation close enough to fear destruction?

My prediction is that both Iran, and North Korea face military strikes on their nuclear weapons, and other weapons of mass destruction facilities - as well as strikes against their missile facilities.

While I look back at the Bush-Cheney administration in contempt for destabilizing the Middle East, tricking us into a quagmire in Iraq, and isolating the U.S., I do believe that the Obama administration will soon find itself having to make choices which the Bush administration failed to make. We need to be prepared for the consequences.

Welcome New Jeromites!

I posted the following comment to SJ-R's recent article regarding the Village of Jerome's (Illinois) recent annexation of some remaining unincorporated Woodside Township bordering Jerome, and Springfield, Illinois.

Welcome new Jeromites! Thank goodness this puts an end to the leaf burning. As far as Park street, it really needs work, and has for ten years - it's the one big let down here. About the small town 'feel' of Jerome - it exist. I love this little village, and I'll often drive through our streets rather than Springfield's just to experience Jerome. The police are great. Call them, and they are there in less than five minutes - always! Jerome police are not just trying to pass out tickets, or make arrest. They have always treated me, and mine with civility, and generosity. The public service department is fantastic. They have gone far beyond their responsibilities to help with yard waste, spraying for insects, picking up unwanted materials - just like clockwork. After the tornadoes, to see all of these fine folk working together to help us recover was an amazing thing I'll never forget. Despite being surrounded by an ever more threatening Springfield Jerome manages to remind me of the way Springfield used to be decades ago. So welcome to the village ya'll.

Would I like curbs, and sidewalks? Absolutely, I really would! Yet, that's it - that is the only complaint I have about Jerome. I have lived in Jerome for twelve years now, and I have never regretted our decision to move here - other than when I discovered to my horror that District 186 gerrymandered the map which determines which high school our kids go to.

In one of the most obscenely rigged maps I have ever seen our part of Jerome somehow ended up having to send our children to South East Springfield High, while neighborhoods far closer to South East, for example those in Hawthorne Place, are skipped over. And if you look at the map, and the way it has to narrowly run down a single road for miles to get to Jerome it is pretty obvious it was done for political reasons - skip over better off whites, and pick on Jerome in the name of balancing the racial equations of Springfield's schools.