Rossputin.com Rational Thinking About Our World

Ivan Eland, Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace & Liberty at the Independent Institute, has a new article arguing against broadening the sanctions on Iran outside the areas specifically related to acquiring weapons technology. One of his main points is that such sanctions create an anti-US, anti-Western nationalism inside Iran which is likely to counter the same internal forces which might eventually cause a regime change toward something less extreme than Khameni and Ahmadinejad. I think Eland has a real point here.

My main question for him, which I will ask him and post the response for, is this: Doesn't he tread a very thin logical and rhetorical line by arguing that the existence of an Iranian nuclear program "has not been proven" since not only is there some fairly strong evidence, but we also have the words of the country's leaders who say, as I understand them, that they are working on developing a nuclear weapon and that they would like nothing better than to annihilate Israel with it?

In any case, I think Eland makes an interesting and potentially very important overall point and I encourage you to read his piece at the following link:

Ratcheting Up Sanctions on Iran Is the Wrong Approach
March 26, 2007, Ivan Eland, The Independent Institute
http://independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1950