Iran hysteria?

Perhaps I am incredibly naive, and I know I am not completely well-informed, but would someone explain to me our apparent hysteria over Iran. I constantly encounter claims that Iran is "the greatest threat to the Middle East," or Iran might start WWIII if they get a bomb, and Iran supports terrorists, and they are helping Iraqis to murder our troops, and so on, and on.

As far as I know Iran has not attacked anyone for about two hundred years. They do not have any recent history of being a predatory nation. When attacked by Iraq (with the help of the U.S.) they tried to defend themselves. When the CIA overthrew their government and installed the Shah they were not pleased (should they have been).

They support Hezbollah, a terrorist organization. It is only a terrorist organization depending upon your point of view. In fact, Hezbollah only came into existence to protect Lebanon from Israel. From the point of view of Iran and other countries they are not a terrorist organization.

They support Hamas, another terrorist organization (according to us). Hamas is the legitimately elected through the democratic process government of the Palestinians. In truth, they can hardly be said to be terrorists anymore than Israelis can be said to be terrorists.

They are said to be shipping explosives and such into Iraq to aid in the killing of American soldiers. As near as I can determine there is little evidence this is true.

They have no business interfering in Iraq. Iraq is a neighboring country. They are far more interested in what goes on there than we should be (we are 8000 miles away from there. Why are we there in the first place).

They are trying to build a nuclear bomb. At the moment there is more reason to believe this is not true than to believe it is. They have always said they are interested in nuclear power, not nuclear bombs. The United Nations inspector says there is no evidence they are building a bomb and now our own 16 separate Intelligence agencies agree. Furthermore, even if they did build a bomb they would hardly be stupid enough to use it as they know they would immediately be blown off the face of the earth.

Iran has made overtures to the U.S., wanting to establish better relations. They have been rejected repeatedly by Dick Cheney and others. Why have they been rejected? It would hardly seem reasonable to think they are terribly dangerous when they have been seeking improved relations with us.

They are constantly said to be "exporting terrorism." Aside from one instance in the distant past I have seen no specific examples of this. So where? When? What happened? Remember that the 9/11 attackers were Saudis, and most of the foreign elements in Iraq attacking us are also Saudis. Where have Iranians actually attacked us?

We have been threatening Iran for years with "regime change." What business do we have trying to change their regime (again). Should they not be concerned that we have this bellicose position? The Iranians know perfectly well that we covet their enormous oil potential. Should they not be concerned to protect their resources from a predatory U.S. government?

Iran was a highly civilized culture before the U.S. existed. From their point of view we must appear like a barbarian horde trying to destroy them (there is more than a mere grain of truth in this).

So tell me, dear readers, why the hysteria? What is we fear so much? Iran has a defense budget probably less than 10% of ours. They are in no position to attack us even if they desired to do so. If they actually do want a bomb you can be sure they want it to protect themselves, not to unleash a nuclear war they would clearly lose. I can only conclude that Iran is a threat to us and the Middle East only insofar as their interests are not ours. They seem willing to engage diplomatically. We do not.

I don't think the Brafia is going to get their way on this. Bush is no Genghis Khan (although he seems to want to be), and he doesn't have enough horses to pull this particular criminal act off. Don't spend a lot of time worrying about the Iranians.

LKBIQ:
"The U.N. was set up not to get us to Heaven but only to save us from Hell."
Sir Winston Churchill