Iran and the Bomb

Professor Ray Takeyh, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations has an OpEd in Saturday's Washington Post.  The title is "Why Iran thinks it needs the bomb".

The lede:

Bombastic claims of nuclear achievement, threats to close critical international waterways, alleged terrorist plots and hints of diplomatic outreach — all are emanating from Tehran right now.  This past week, confrontation between Iran and the West reached new heights as Israel accused Iran of a bombing attempt in Bangkok and others targeting Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia.  And yet, on Wednesday, an Iranian nuclear negotiator signaled that Tehran wants to get back to the table.

What does Iran really want?  What, as strategists might ask, are the sources of Iranian conduct?

While not a rose-strewn path out of the current problem, the short piece does give us some insight.  Sadly, Professor Takeyh is not as optimistic about there being a young, more secular group to pull the nation back from the brink of constant confrontation.  However, his words give us some insight into why Iran seems to be so public about their nuclear progress.

One quibble I have with the piece is this wording:

Under the auspices of an austere and dogmatic supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a “war generation” is taking control in Iran — young rightists who were molded by the prolonged war with Iraq in the 1980s.

What does the use of the term "rightists" mean to convey?  Is it that, like me, they go to Church/Mosque once a week?  Is it that they put a lot of stock in the Constitution of their nation?  Is it that they are worried about the erosion of the cultural deposit upon which their nation is founded?  Is is because they are worried that a false Marxist-Keynesian economic view will impoverish the majority of the People?

Or was it just an extreme carelessness?

Regards  —  Cliff