Re: [Phys-l] dealing with the media +- evolution

[Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@mindspring.com>]

At 17:20  -0500 4/6/08, cliff parker wrote:
> I take your points.  Communication is a tricky business and some use that to
> their advantage.  But can you lay enrichment of uranium and construction of
> nuclear power plants at the feet of mistranslation?  Or do you really think
> it is to avoid the CO2 emissions.  They can't even refine their own crude
> oil but rather have to import gasoline but are working on nuclear power to
> produce ELECTRICITY?
Cliff, no one is saying that they aren't after nuclear weapons. It 
looks pretty much that way to me, too. I agree with your analysis. 
But you are assigning far too much certainty to your conclusions. It 
is dangerous to convict someone, even in the international court of 
public opinion, without conclusive evidence. What you are presenting 
is circumstantial, and is strong evidence, but it needs more to 
become conclusive.

If our government continues to operate on the basis that this 
evidence is conclusive and then acts on it, we are, as John M. has 
pointed out, likely to end up in a rerun of Iraq, no better results.

Appearances can be deceiving, and merely having a nuclear reactor, or 
a nuclear enrichment facility in connection with a nuclear reactor 
doesn't mean that weapons are inevitable. If it did, then Japan, 
Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Canada, Australia and a whole host 
of other countries would have nuclear weapons.

If Iran cannot refine its own oil, and is dependent on foreign 
refineries for gasoline for its vehicles, it would make sense to me 
to build a nuclear plant for electricity, especially if some country 
like Russia was willing to do all the work, and all they had to do 
was pay for it from their vast oil revenues.

Look what the assumptions about Iraq got us into. Are we ready to 
play the same game in Iran?

Hugh
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Hugh Haskell
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<mailto:hhaskell@mindspring.com>

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