I would think to prevent an all out, multi country, middle east war, which could easily escalate into a major world war. Iran has been trying to bait us into taking action for a reason, they have interferred with shipping, taken british soldiers hostage, you gotta ask what's their end game?
Given that the point of Iraq was WMD or the technological capability to produce WMD, such logic is highly inconsistent - - - especially given IRAN'S membership ( by Bush ) as part of the "Axis of Evil". Meanwhile, I remind you that we've lost over 4200 young men and women in Iraq. For what? Is the world safer now? Hardly. Especially given IRAN'S dramatic advancement of their nuclear program during the Bush years.
Where the fuck would China be without their move toward capitalism that was started in the 70's??? Everyone loves to blame all of their problems on the USA, what else is new????
Putin was feeling pretty "smug" at the Beijing Olympics when crude was still trading over $100 per barrel and he invaded Georgia. He ( and Russia ) are not feeling too "smug" anymore . . . not with Crude and the Ruble having crashed. The Russian Central Bank had spent more than $100 BILLION defending the currency in Q4 of last year alone.
It is socialism (for the rich) that caused the economic meltdown, not communism or capitalism. China and Russia should first blame themselves for being socialist countries, thus enabling the financial collapse
With all respect to your patriotism: If China is a currency manipulator then what is the United States? Since the US dollar is used as a reserve currency around most of the world, the US is basically getting an interest free loan from the rest of the world. I'd say you could call that a form of currency manipulation. Any talk of changing the status quo such as using a basket of currencies for the world reserve is naturally going to be met with trememdous resistance. Do you think the US will give up their interest free loan that easily? Why shouldn't all the countries in the world have a share of that interest free loan like Putin suggests? The Iraq war has been rumoured to be a currency war or another form of currency manipulation. The heat on Iraq all started when Saddam decided to sell his oil for Euros instead of American dollars. Is Iran is under threat now because they supposedly want to play around with nuclear weapons or because they set up an oil bourse using Euros instead of dollars? http://www.fff.org/comment/com0303a.asp http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8354.htm
Still doesn't change the fact that Iran is looking for a reason to get into a war, nothing unifies a country like an external enemy. That could get out of hand very quickly, the timing just wasn't right for a strike into Iran. More people were murdered in mexico this year then lost in Iraq.....keep things in perspective. We were not attacked since 9/11, Bush did a wonderful job protecting the American people.