Bush, Putin say they 'stand together' on Iran nuclear issue

People who throw around made up statistics or only utilize information provided in a single skewed poll are doing little to help the situation. I wonder if you could even comprehend all of the complicated facets of world politics and ruling a country, much less implement them in concert with others. Helpful ideas and dialogue developed here and then passed from us to our leaders will get more results. Revolution can be peaceful. I write to my congressmen/women regularly. For every 1 letter they receive, they account for 10,000 others who feel the same but do not take the time to write. The power is in our hands. Do not let comments on Talkback be the extent of our actions. Do something. Make your opinion count and be productive in your dialogue and encourage others to take meaningful action.

1 Iran is not looking for a nuclear power plant for peaceful energy purposes, but for nuclear weapons. 2 Iran can have all the energy it wants by developing its oil refinement capacity. Everyone would be more than happy to help Iran with such an endeavor. 3 Since Iran cannot extract enough oil with present capacity, and since it has not invested in any other investments, Iran remains a poor country. Potential wealth does not count as wealth. Nor can any country depend solely on one natural resource, be it oil, to become and remain wealthy. Oil could be an important component of Iran's future wealth, but not sufficient. Today, which is what counts right now, Iran is a rather poor country, with a restive, resentful population.

Why don't we do something TOUGH for a change, hm? Like bomb Iran! IAEA found in Iran polonium-210, highly perishable, half-life of ONLY 138 DAYS, only used to make A-bomb triggers. This means Iran about to nuke Israel IMMINENTLY. Israel must drop neutron bombs on Iran and Syria! Read: http://www.neutroniran.blogspot.com/ Only alternative: H-bomb on Tehran but neutron bombs on military targets far more gentle. But Iran is so centralized that it is a "one bomb" country if H-bomb used. Read: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/article.php3?id=6835 Neutron radiation destroys soldiers, not property, dissipates quickly. One week later invasion is cakewalk. Invade Iran through Syria with ground forces to seize and destroy Iran nuke sites on the ground. Then no need to nuke underground Iran nuclear sites. Just take stairs, destroy with conventional explosives. ONLY way to get ALL Iran nuclear sites: INVADE! Fact: Israel WILL use nukes. Only question is whether Iran uses them first.

One really must wonder what Bush is thinking. Russia and the US are natural partners in dealing with islamofascism and, down the road, China. Yet Bush seems to be hell bent upon vindicating traditional Russian suspicions and concerns. Why expand Nato to Russia's doorstep? Why abandon the ABM treaty in a manner that Russia finds threatening, when there clearly are means that Russia does not find threatening *and* that more directly address the concerns that Bush raises to justify missile defense. Why push for independence of an islamic European state - Kosovo - in an area traditionally of more interest to Russia? And why hector Russia about its democracy when Putin is so overwhelmingly popular in his own country while Bush himself, who was not even elected in 2000, is loathed by 75% of Americans?

I would not quibble with the details of your post, except to say that many of Irans problems which you mention could be solved by a program which would begin with a nuclear power plant. Jobs require industry and industry requires power. Iran is not set up as a western style, capitalist nation, therefore it becomes easy to point out their shortcomings from that perspective. I stand on my statement that "Iran is not a poor nation". Oil is the defacto world currency, and Iran has the 4th largest reserves in the world.

yep, just another day in the office, but not too long for bush, and putin doing the israel foot dragging trick, all words and no action.

"We're close on recognizing that we got to work together to send a common message." so let me get this straihgt. you ALMOST recongnize that you got to work together? so you're not quite there yet. Whats next??? ACTUALY recongnizing, then the work starts i guess. that has to be the most ridiculous shit talking i have ever heard. not surprised it came from Bush.

who said, "United we stand, divided we fall." Russia may be sacrificing its own security on the altar of short-term economic interests.

One would hope that the two countries will come to some rational agreement on the major issues affecting world peace. It is in everyone's interst to deal with Iran's nuclear weapons' issue constructively. Both countries also have a vested interest in cooperating on terrorism. On the other hand, neither country has an interest in provoking the other unnecessarily. Regardless of traditional geopolitical and ideological rivalries, neither country would benefit from unduly weakening the other.

Iran, an oil rich nation, has to import the vast majority of its refined oil from abroad. Iran has no income except what it gets from the sale of oil, which is less than a third of what Saudi Arabia gets given poor production levels in Iran. Yet, Iran has more than double the population. Iran has no industries, no way to employ its population, and has instituted gasoline rationing, which has resulted in riots. Iran, of course, could go the way of ever growing oppression in order to pursue its monomaniac nuclear weapons program, but it does so at the risk of provoking a revolution among its disaffected young population.

"President George W. Bush and visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin announced at the end of their meeting Monday that they "stand together" on the Iranian nuclear question, but did not give any details on what are the practical implications of their shared position." The UK Guardian sums up the meeting differently: "NO DEAL REACHED BY BUSH & PUTIN Leaders fail to reach any agreement on proposed US missile system, Iran or Kosovo."

Here is my analysis. More sanctions on Iran will be retaliated by causing more American deaths in Iraq. Chocking Iran with petrol sanctions will be retaliated by closing the Strait of Hormuz thus starving the world with more than 20% of the world's oil supplies. The Russians and the Chinese will love the above formula. The poor U.S. will be pulled into the Iraq swamp even deeper while the Russians happily collect their profits in high oil prices. They may suddenly find themselves as the only super power on earth.

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America has been boycotting Iran for decades and has absolutely nothing to lose from a boycott of Iran. Russia, on the other hand, has close ties with Iran and is the prime contractor in building and developing Irans nuclear program. No matter what Putin says, he will be more concerned in supporting Russian interests than he is in supporting American and Israeli interests. In fact, if Russian support of Iran is clandestine, Russia can charge more. Its not as if Iran is a poor country. The fact that Bush is building missile bases in eastern Europe and courting the ex-soviet block countries to join NATO gives Putin all the more incentive to foil Bush in Iran and do it with a smile.

Russia continues to arm Syria and Iran and work on a nuclear reactor for Iran. They only thing there is mutual lip service and an extremely ineffective regimen of sanctions as porous as a sieve.