Quote Originally Posted by Mike_ratliff View Post
The open opposition I'm referring to is a bit more than that, I don't believe the Iranians are training insurgents in Iraq, if they are, good for them. I'm referring to attacks on US ships, that have aparently been linked to them,
I haven't heard about these attacks, I'd appreciate more information on them.

Quote Originally Posted by Mike_ratliff View Post
and weapons going into Iraq that are too advanced to be made by simple insurgents.
Which as I said previously has been denied by the Iraq government and our own government has cancelled every (though it was the only one) press conference to display these iranian made weapons because they discovered they were't Iranian made.

The rhetoric against Iran is justified, it is a country ruled by religious zealots. I have christian born Iranian friends who were chased out in the revolution, their families were murdered in the night, by extremists who took over the country in the name if islam. Any country or government that will openly kill you because of your religion deserves such scrutiny.

Quote Originally Posted by Mike_ratliff View Post
Every word in the English language has more than one meaning, I'm sure Persian is similar, the translation you hear is what the translator wants you to hear, some things that may sound harsh to us are common phrases in other countries, and should not be taken as offensive, but in a global political arena it is the responsibility of the politician speaking to make sure he isn't declaring war, or promoting genocide. many political lessons have been learned the hard way because a simple hand gesture was mistranslated...
I agree, but when something is translated to say "wipe off the map" when there isn't even a persian equivelent seems like we're stuffing words into someone's mouth.

Quote Originally Posted by Mike_ratliff View Post
The one truth we can not mis translate or ignore are what a country teaches it's children, and under Iranian law if you denounce islam, or have a bible you are put to death. How far is that from death to all infidels?

For that matter, if a woman is raped, she can be put to death for it...
And that's bad, but we're one of the few countries that allow freedom of religion, while it's the best solution very few other countries have that as a principle of low. It's a tad irrational to hold them accountable for holding to islamic law without denouncing russia for adhering to roman catholic law is it not?

Quote Originally Posted by Mike_ratliff View Post
The United States may not be perfect, far from it, but comparing our statements to Iran is just wrong. The US is one of the biggest supporters of human rights in the world, we do more to keep the peace than any other nation. If we adopted the policies of the nations we had disagreements with, there would be no planet to worry about right now.
We are one of the greatest supporters of human rights in the world, as for keeping peace that's debatable. I'd agree if we allowed our embassies to assist foreign citizens to come here under political asylum, but as it is we're just trying to force everybody to be like us.

Nobody has said we should adopt the policies of other countries, but we as the greatest country should lead the way and prove that equality is the best and easiest system to provide for the people under the government. There is no better way to prove that democracy doesn't work than by bringing it to other people at the end of a gun.