text: The issue of Iran is a complicated one.\n\nOh, to answer the nationality question, I'm an American. But I'm also a political scientist, so I look at this a bit differently.\n\nIran's nuclear enrichment program is really a diversion. You have to understand that Iran, along with Iraq and North Korea, were labeled members of an "axis of evil." Now, the United States invaded Iraq. And the Iranians know that the United States could overrun North Korea in about six weeks. Add to that the fact that we have troops in Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as Turkey, and what do you have?\n\nA surrounded and very nervous Iran.\n\nThey see that as soon as North Korea starts tossing around nuclear weaponry as a potential, the United States quickly backed off any sort of war footing and started talking negotiation. In reality, nuclear weapons (or the perception therein) give the Iranian government a big bargaining chip.\n\nPlus, the United States is much less likely to invade Iran if they have a suspicion that the minute they step over the boarder, New York vanishes in a cloud of radioactive dust.\n\nAs for nuclear experiements, I'm assuming you mean testing a bomb. They won't, at least if they're smart. THhey'll give the impression that they have one, maybe even parade one down main street of Theran. But to test one would make it clear that they have a nuclear weapon, and that makes them a target.\n\nMy biggest fear about Iran having a weapon of mass destruction is not that the Iranian government would use it. Indeed, they have no system for delivering it, even to Israel. What the fear is for me is that they will lose the bomb - that is, some scientist who feels like the West screwed him might give one to a terrorist.\n\nIn reality, the fewer nuclear weapons on the planet, the safer we all are.