That is one possibility and it is a worrying possibility given:
- His statements about Israel, zionism and the Holocaust;
- His support of Hezbollah and Hamas; and
- His apparently apocalyptic religious beliefs.
Quite frankly. If US top-level Politicians talk about: "Mushroom Clouds", "with us or with terrorists", "Axis of Evil", "Terrorstates", "God save America", "God lead me to war" ... and so on, this does sounds exactly as dangerous to the Muslim world as Mahmoud's speech.
And guess what: From the White House we know for sure these are no empty words once they have a new Castro, Chrestniev, Khrushchev, Terrorists, Communists, yadda, yadda, yadda...
What would you think if America would interfere in Australia by trying to topple the Government? It's not their business until they're being attacked. After all, just like Iran, Australia is a sovereign nation, too. End of Story.
By the Way: Does Australia have Nuclear Reactors?
There is no clear indication that he values the wellbeing of his people (and the arabs who would die in the event of an attack on Israel) above his apocalyptic beliefs and his desire to rid the world of zionism.
You're drawing a worst-case scenario. That isn't an objective.
What about this scenario: The most powerful Country in the World is undermined by a group of aggressive people who are trying to change the world militarily and preemptively. This cannot happen in a country with thousands of nuclear weapons, can it?
On the other hand, he doesn't control all the power in Iran and there are (hopefully) people in Iran who do value the wellbeing of the Iranian people.
That's for sure. And they also don't want to get "wiped off the face from the earth" as a response for a nuclear attack. No?
It seems more likely that Iran would use the threat of its nuclear weapons to improve its position in its various disputes and interventions against the Kurdish community, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Central Asia, the rest of the Arab Middle East, Lebanon and Israel.
Nope, it would use it to have the same world-political privilege as the US, France, China, the UK and so on: "Stay away from us, we have nuclear weapons, too."
There is also the risk that it will share its nuclear technology with countries like North Korea or even (and this seems a long way off) with terrorist groups.
Well, who are terrorists? The ones who attack the west? What about the ones who attack the east? Just a matter of POV. You know what I mean, don't you?
There is also the risk that a nuclear armed Iran could spark an arms race which could include (directly) Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Israel and (indirectly) Egypt, India and China.
Yes, that could happen in the Middle-East. Thank you, Israel.
The risk of any or all of this events occurring may not be great but these are the issues that I believe are concerning the international community.
Iraq and the missing WMD's & Terrorists-Links, for example ... exactly.
