i think iran getting the bomb could be a critical step toward the world peace the bomb was supposed to bring about. not that i particularly appreciate that, but it's too late to go back other than in whatever hopes one has for future generations. for now, i think it's perfectly telling how difficult it is for iran to get what it wants in exchange for letting go the nuke pursuit: guarantee of its sovereignity. peter's comment above is very true, but i can tell you also that even for someone who very much wants to understand what's going on out there in the world, it isn't easy. we don't get exposure to a wide range of ideas here, and it's difficult to get the conversation going because a) unless you've got some ideas already, it's difficult to find sources of useful information (this is in the instance where one's day to day doesn't really leave a practical amount of time and energy to try and learn everything going on everywhere); and b) if you have some ideas already, and are honest about it, its difficult to get people to just talk to you rather than try and convince you of something. it goes both ways of course. how do you, as someone who cares about what's going on, find out how people who care about what's going on feel about what's going on? once you care, it starts to matter to you. with so many issues in gridlock, how do you get people to share their observations without running them through their defenses? when it's something like getting the bomb or not, there isn't a lot of room for screwing up. it's easy to see why people would opt for not wanting iran to have the bomb if there's any chance they could regret it, because boy would that be a lot to regret. so it gets difficult to get people to confess to the hypocrisy of who gets the bomb and who doesn't. if we were just honest and said we're afraid of the variables, rather than howling absolutes about iran being the bad guy (if that's really true why were we selling them arms in the 80s?, etc etc), well... i mean we'd be living on a whole different planet, which we aren't. your poll depends in part on what people think democracy means, how much a country gets away with before they have to call themselves "democracy lite" or give it up altogether.
- By: chaizzilla on November 6, 2004

western people are very unaware of the world around them. I figure i can say this because i am a western person (american). All that my friends care about is the latest TV show or movie, they dont know anything about situiations in Sudan or Israel or anything like that. maybe its becuase im a teenager, so all my friends are rather young, but my parents dont know much about current events either. I know now, from looking on the internet at news sites and such, that if i am drafted (which may happen soon becuase of bush) i will not fight. Every human has a right to their own opinion, and wars are simply killing other people becuase of a difference of opinion (and a lack of tolerance for it). Well most of the time thats what wars are, in some cases its a human rights thing, like world war 2 and the nazis.
- By: Peter on November 4, 2004