Iran: Do you think the U.N. can back down our Decider in Chief?

[Cyrano]

None of us really knows whether King George is bluffing about nuking Iran, or whether he's crazy enough to do it.

I believe that the U.N. must immediately do what they've never done before: Unite, and tell an American president "Stop."

There aren't any other real options. Anyone here talking about "taking to the streets" is, IMO, living in a fantasy land. Does anyone really believe that Bush would hesitate to use all means available to stop the peasants from uprising?

A strong stand by the U.N., or perhaps the European Union, might be the only way to stop whatever madness we're currently hurtling toward. I just don't see any other options.

(And please, please, leave out any "Rambo" replies to this thread or the moderators will delete the whole thing.)

[mnmoderatedem]

1. yes but it might not matter

Enough countries did not back our invasion of Iraq and in effect set up a stop sign, but we ignored it anyway. I firmly believe it would be almost unanimous against nuking Iran. Heck I think even Britan would be against it. But he may do it anyway...

[kaygore]

2. It's not about Iran joining the nuclear club, but about OIL

Iran has done what Saddam threatened to do: Stopping trading oil in dollars.

Then, they went one step beyond Saddam and on March 20 (I believe that was the date) set up their own oil market to compete with the ones in New York and London.

The oil companies will not stand for this so neither will this administration. Unless Iran backs down (which Saddam tried to do but Bush needed a war to distract from the selling of America to the highest bidders), so it was a no go.

In this case, I doubt that Iran will back down. They saw where trying to back down got Saddam, so why even try.

[The2ndWheel]

3. No

1. US
2. UN
3. Everyone else

They going to send the guys in blue hats to Washington?

If this administration has the will to do it, they'll do it.

[endarkenment]

4. Nope.

Certainly they can do nothing more at the security council than not agree to our proposals. We can veto anything we don't like. The General Assembly could pass a resolution, but I believe the administration will simply denounce the UN, and use such an action (along with the inaction at the SC) to continue their 'UN is broken we must do it ourselves' meme. John Bolton was sent to the UN to wreck it and render it irrelevent.

The worse the domestic crisis gets, the more likely Bush is to pull the trigger unilaterally on Iran. There are two factors here that are going to result in a lot of dead Iranians and Americans. First, with the clock running out on this administration, the pressure from the PNACers to 'finish the job' mounts. Second, with the '06 elections now looking like a big Democratic win, the administration is desperate to reframe the debate, and what has worked for them consistently is war and terra.