One word:

Mosaddeq

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Mosaddeq

for a brief summary, for those who are unaware of history occurring prior to the latest run of Dancing With the Stars

As far as I am aware, Iran has never carried out a coup against a highly popular democratically elected leader on U.S. soil.

If the reverse was true, there would probably be a heck of a lot less mess in the middle east.

I believe the following is public knowledge:

Jay Janson
The ‘supplementary agreements' added on to the Proliferation Treaty requirements at first agreed to by Tehran were soon thereafter not ratified by the legislature and Iran gave notice to that effect at the time they were denied ratification, making clear that Iran was sticking to, and recognizing those requirements agreed to in the Non-Proliferation Treaty itself, and not the ‘supplementary agreements'.

Iran has complied with the basic treaty requirements which were notification six months prior to a facility becoming functional, even giving eighteen months notice, but not the prior notice required in the long rejected ‘supplementary agreements."

When ElBaradei went along with Obama and allies claiming a violation, the violation claimed was of the ‘supplementary agreements' which included a stipulation to notify the enforcing committee before beginning construction of a new plant or facility.

Perhaps this was true to ErBaradei form in spite of his recent strong statement of there being no evidence of nuclear weapons program, he disappointed us once before with that Pontious-Pilot-like “washing his hands” before the invasion of Iraq, dissimulating and hedging his reporting no nuclear finds in his monitored inspections and leaving open a hole of “could not being sure” ‘big enough [for Bush] to drive his truck through.'

That said, Prof. Cole's article on the media concocted public misconceptions regarding Iran's nuclear program and others like the dis-translation of "wipe off the map," was much needed.

"Belief: Iran is like North Korea…"

…that there is constant risk also of demonising North Korea, at comparable or greater peril. There is a sense in which the North Korea question is like the Iran question. Or like, I suppose, the Cuba question.

There are great dangers in having the Iran question frontally engaged by the artillery of perverse thinking, this article helps present some reality.

Over decades there has been a different problem in relation to Korea of the issues being too hard, the opponent being too mad, issues unaddressed, left with the military much of the time. This still tends to happen, the issues narrowed down, to the allowable channels and agenda items of table and chest thumping. Much ignorance and presumption of first-person virtue. When we are annually whipped up by news of 'hostile' North Korean manoeuvres, there is scarce mention that these are generally responses to annual reinforcement exercises between the US and ROK. No review of the history of explicit nuclear weapons threats to North Korea, no comment on the presence for a long time of US nuclear weapons in South Korea (until the nineties; the north says they are still there, what historical dealings basis would they have to think otherwise) contrary to the Armistice agreement… and so on.

Compare Schlesinger on Korea 1975 link to gwu.edu

with Schlesinger on Iran and other 'rogues' 2009:
http://gsn.nti.org/siteservices/full_edition.php?Edition=01/08/2009

"Let the world know, I can thump my chest too!" This all stinks of fundamentalism, I look at North Korean parades and see religion to rival the Olympics and leave baptists agog.

We share with ants the R-complex of the brain stem with its the penchant for ritual and action to defend the nest, but as a 'higher' species we have far surpassed the ants with out frontal lobe capacity for fabulist fundamentalist arguments for hostility. We seem to need a ban on neurological weapons…

Oh yes, I don't doubt for a moment that the US will attack Iran and murder innocent people. That is WHAT all governments DO over time! And I have no doubt that innocent Americans will pay in blood for the hubris of our "leaders". It saddens me greatly that the only option I have left is to pray as the average American opinion means zero.

Great article and wonderful that I can read the comments of others from around the world.
Al Sledge