LaSalle bon Dioxide wrote:

nihil wrote:

LaSalle bon Dioxide wrote:In essence, our conversation convinced me that the lives of millions of people over there are seriously fucked with because a few people want to maintain power.

This statement could easily apply to the United States. This statement could also be applied to many governments. It's nonsense and does not make a point.

For example:

because they are gay they cannot marry...

because they are black they cannot...

on and on...

I agree that there are certain injustices that exist in our society and I agree that our country's foreign policies are oft way off the mark of just, but I think how much a country interferes with the details of people's daily lives, how much the course of their lives is affected, how much of the population is affected and how often, are the issues at hand. Sure, the US does not allow gays to get married. But, we're not carting people off for execution if they dissent those in power. Of course, I am going on hearsay from Iranian refugees and stories I've read in the media. I don't think the people I spoke with had any reason to lie and I believed them.

At least on paper, the disparity of rights between races in this country has been improved drastically in the last 50 years.

Incornsyucopia wrote:Breshnev

International efforts to resolve the dispute over Iran’s nuclear activities will continue, with possible attempts to establish interim arrangements that might restore previous Iranian co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Any agreement, however, would probably collapse under the pressure of mutual suspicion and divergent interests. There are a number of scenarios that follow from this, the most likely being acceptance of a nuclear weapons capable Iran, possibly under very close surveillance.

Cranius wrote:There was a time when the international community, led by the US, opposed a India's nuclear capability. Now India have become regional ally number-one.

THE damage done by George Bush's proposed nuclear deal with India gets worse and worse. Already weakened by the nuclear antics of Iran and North Korea, the web of treaties and controls that seeks to halt the bomb's spread is starting to unravel. Congress, hitherto a staunch defender of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and all it stands for, is poised to allow America's laws to be amended to accommodate civilian nuclear trade with India, despite that country's bomb-building. There will then be pressure on the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to carve an India-shaped hole in its global nuclear export restrictions, and on the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to agree to “India-specific” safeguards on any nuclear materials or technology sold.

The Bush administration defends its India deal as good for combating global warming, good for friendship with the world's biggest democracy and good for jobs in America. All that is debatable (see article). But its claim that the nuclear deal will be a net gain in the fight against proliferation is pure nonsense. The controversial deal is already undermining confidence in the world's anti-nuclear rules. The NPT, which has helped prevent a number of other capable states from going nuclear, and encouraged some which tried (Argentina and Brazil) and others which had succeeded (South Africa) to turn back, rests on a promise: that only those that renounce nuclear weapons qualify for civilian nuclear assistance. India deliberately stayed outside the treaty to build its bombs; America is now offering it nuclear help anyway. That won't encourage others to keep their non-nuclear promises.

the almighty al Jazeera, 12/18/06 wrote:Iran to replace dollar with euro

Iran also indicated that it will calculate
its budget revenues in euros

The Iranian central bank is to convert the state's foreign dollar assets into euros and use the euro for foreign transactions.

"The government has ordered the central bank to replace the dollar with the euro to limit the problems of the executive organs in commercial transactions," said Gholam Hossein Elham, a government spokesman, on
Monday.

"We will also employ this change for Iranian assets (in dollars) held abroad."

Elham added that Iran's budget would in future be calculated in euros.

"Until now the budget has been calculated according to revenues in dollars but this calculation will now change," he said.

Oil revenue

The move comes amid pressure from the United States for the UN Security Council to agree sanctions against Iran over its controversial nuclear programme.

The US alleges that Iran is covertly building a nuclear weapon. Iran insists its nuclear programme is purely for civilian use.

Elham implied that the move to the euro would also apply to Iran's oil revenues.

"Foreign income sources and oil revenues will be calculated in euros and we will receive them in euros in order to put an end to our dependence on the dollar," Elham said.

India Helps Iran Build the Bomb, While the White House Looks the Other Way

The U.S. government usually takes a hard line against countries that assist Iran with its nuclear program. In 2006 alone, Washington sanctioned firms in Cuba, North Korea, and Russia for making it a little easier for Iran to develop weapons of mass destruction. But, when the proliferator is a close American ally, the United States seems to take a different approach.

Just after the U.S. House of Representatives voted in July to support a plan to provide India with nuclear technology, the Bush administration quietly imposed sanctions on two Indian firms for supplying Tehran with missile parts. Nor was the White House forthcoming with congress about other blots on India’s proliferation record: In the past two years, two other Indian companies have been penalized for allegedly passing chemical weapons information to Iran, and two Indian scientists who ran the state-run nuclear utility were barred from doing business with the U.S. government after they allegedly passed heavy-water nuclear technology to Tehran. Far from scuttling India’s nuclear deal, the United States seems to have rewarded the country by overturning 30 years of nonproliferation policy in its favor.

WASHINGTON -
President Bush on Monday signed a civilian nuclear deal with India, allowing fuel and know-how to be shipped to the world's largest democracy even though it has not submitted to full international inspections.

"The bill will help keep America safe by paving the way for India to join the global effort to stop the spread of nuclear weapons," Bush said.

coceng wrote:Is this good or bad ??