Gwynne Dyer's Nov. 24 article, "Evidence on Iran doesn't seem to matter," is an alarming reminder of the role of ideology and "group think" in the formation of policy.
As the author makes strikingly clear, the current rhetoric aimed at vilifying Iran's nuclear program flagrantly ignores strong evidence suggesting that the country is either not interested in weaponizing their enriched uranium or that they would not be able to do so for many years.
More important, the bellicose stance of the United States, France, Israel et al., and the accompanying ignorance (in the original sense of the word) of the facts, makes this historian profoundly concerned about people's inability to learn from the lessons of history.
We were in this place just five years ago, being told of terrible consequences should we not take rapid and decisive action against Iraq, whose extensive, covert and malicious weapons of mass destruction program was aimed directly at "us." Not only is this notion ridiculous in hindsight, it should have been ridiculous then, and it was for some people. The problem was that our ideology clouded our perception. Many of us saw what we wanted to see in spite of the evidence and even against our common sense. Will we repeat this same mistake with Iran?
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