I'm not so sure that the election (assuming Ahmadinejad loses) will deter Iran's nuclear ambitions. The Mullahs want a nuclear Iran and the government revolves around the Mullahs will.

I knew it. The conspiracy deepens!

There's no conspiracy, anyone who follows the news knows the Mullahs call the shots. It's written into their constitution.

When in doubt, break the potato out !!

I just about busted a gut when I read about the potato give-away! And to think that Jtapia, Bunny and Expatriate were right on the money all along. Potatoes have been the key all along! Who would of thunk it!

On a more serious note, I have to agree with Bitmasher. I believe Iran wants nuclear weapons, regardless of who's in power. The Mullahs have the controlling power.

Why can't we just "give" them some of ours?

Give them some of ours? Are you nuts? Do you think that potato redistribution is going to get us anywhere with Iran? I disagree; history has shown that equally-matched opponents are far more likely to go to battle each other than when there's a great power disparity.

We need to maintain our potato superiority and plant as many as possible. And we need to do whatever we can to restrict the Iranian potato program before it becomes a threat to the world market.

We need a strong military and we need to develop and deploy the best defense systems possible. Do that and it is unlikely we'll need to use them.

As Expat said, the best way to avoid war is to have one party far superior to the other.

Still, even superiority, mutual detruction, and so on doesn't really matter when you're dealing with lunatics like Iran and North Korea.

I can live in poverty or take the fast path to 72 virgins? Which one do you think the lunatic will take?

There is no question that the US is far superior in military might but I don't think that has any real bearing on these extremist countries. They don't need to have as great a force if they are playing by different rules of engagement. Vietnam, Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan are all examples of how a superior force can be stalled when the enemy has no rules to adhere to and the media making sure the good guys do.