[Copernicus]

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Certain people should be prevented from buying guns (such as the criminally insane, or violent criminals), and there are some regimes that should be prevented from obtaining nuclear weapons. It should be even more imperative to prevent a crazy or evil regime from obtaining nukes if that regime is also an avowed enemy of yours who calls repeatedly for your death (as in "Death To America!") I think Iran's regime falls into such a category that should be prevented from obtaining nuclear weapons.

edit: and the fact that Iran may think the same about us happens to be non-germane as to what should or should not be done. Thank God it is we who have the nukes and Iran doesn't, rather than the other way around. Can you imagine what Iran might already have done if the imbalance of power were reversed? Iran denies the holocaust and chants "Death To America! and "Death To Israel!" even now.[/b]

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Again, who gets to decide which side is good and which is evil? If they see us as an evil force, why are they not allowed to take the same actions? I honestly don't think it matters which country is right or wrong in this instance. It is very easy to picture a myriad of scenarios where we think we are virtuous when we are actually being quite evil. I don't think it is a good system to just claim that the good guys can do what they want and the evil ones can't.

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If you don't think that it is demonstrable which side is acting more morally then either you don't have much confidence in your moral values or you accept moral equivalency. I don't. If you don't believe that the various positions JK laid out earlier in the thread are morally superior then you are right, neither side has any right to express its views through war.

I think the moral equivalency contingent is in a distinct minority however. Oppression of women and gays IS wrong, execution or banishment of a woman who is raped IS wrong, attempting to impose your will on others through blowing up restaurants and school busses IS worse than declared war, army vs army, intentionally placing strategic targets in civilian areas in a time of war IS wrong. Once you eschew moral equivalency (if you are able to), things become much less gray.