Romulus, Remus, and Iran

Yesterday as I was watching Star Trek: Nemesis, there was a scene that caused me to pause and think: the top brass of the Enterprise E were sitting around a confrence table discussing Starfleet inteligence reports in relation to the planet Remus, and all they knew was "that the Remens lived on the dark side of the planet and that there was alot of underground activity, dilithium mining, and weapons manufacturing..."

At this point I stopped to think about how much that reminded me of Iran, as they are becomming more and more of a nemesis to the west and are conducting underground and hidden operations in nuclear weapons manufacturing. As I was looking at the news this morning I came across more on Iran. I found this article somewhat chilling as well as this.

The whole glow/aura thing surrounding the president of Iran when he spoke at the United Nations, and the hand holding them there, that's creepy, something way to "Left Behind/Carpathian" for me. It reminds me of the scene at the end of Left Behind, that actually took place at the United Nations where Carpathia "used the force" and forced someone to sit down, and they all believed his non-sensical story about Cothran and Stonigal actually killing themselves...

Captain's Quarters has some additional reporting on the latest with Iran, courtesy of The Scotsman, as well as some analysis that seems to answer many of the questions I posed yesterday (even the colw war era comments). Sadly they were answers I feared.

The Glittering Eye also has a lengthy post on the subject of Iran, it's nuclear efforts (including a timeline) and viable options that could be considered (or not).

Internationally, we seem to be entering a dark time if Eropue will not wake up to the threat that the West collectivly faces. Something has to be done, and I certianly hope that the Scotsman has gotten the reporting wrong and the military action is still a viable option if it comes to that, which it may. The problem faced here, is that of a civilized government such as that of the US is not hard pressed to "cross the line", something Iran would eagerly and quickly do to assert dominence. How do you deal with an enemy, even one such as a state, that would be willing to do so? Even the doctrine of MAD wouldn't work as it did with the Soviet's (as Captain Ed pointed out) because "MAD only works as a doctrine when both sides have the same stake in survival", of which the forces controlling Iran's government do not - going out in a blaze of glory (so to speak) is of greater importance that continuing to exist.

So what will we do?

Stay Tuned, different bat-time, same bat-web address