The Americans fresh from their military defeat in Iraq and the same soon in Afghanistan are looking for new places to use their massive war machine, along with selling its merchandise. It's well known that the US creates situations that then boosts its arms industries to supplying 40% of all weapons sold worldwide each year.

What better place to display all your technology and weapons of destruction then in the "theatre of war".

Only recently the US convinced the Saudis that Iran was a big threat to them in the region that ended up with a USD 60 B order of -: 84 F15 jet fighters, 70 F15 upgrades, 190 helicopters and an array of weapons. So, it's very easy to see that fear gets results especially when you are the person behind it!

Double standards are not a new thing for the Americans, because they have been playing this game for a very long time. Who gave the Soviets the details of how to build a nuclear bomb? The recent terrorists attacks on Iranian scientists who were working on the nuclear program in Iran, has not received any condemnations from the country that's obsessed with terrorism. The assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, took place on January 19, 2010, in a Dubai hotel room and involved 26 Mossad suspects. Yet again not a word from the US and illustrates that "turning the other cheek" is a frequent occurrence when it suits.

Why now is Iran getting the full US treatment on the pretext of it being a danger to world peace, if it has the ability to build a nuclear bomb when other countries more unstable, already have these weapons in place? It's because the American influence is now diminishing (especially in other Arab countries whose despot rulers where supported by them), and along with a bankrupt economy new tactics must be found to bolster their military industry and try to re-establish themselves as world leaders in everything. Also, being seen as the good guys!

If you read most articles or listen to what the majority of Arabs /Muslins are saying about who is responsible for de-stabilising the Middle East (with the exception of Saudi Arabia), it's the Palestinian problem and the Americans' support of Israel in all of this that's the root cause.

Israel has not confirmed that it has nuclear weapons and officially maintains that it will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East. Yet the existence of Israeli nuclear weapons is a "public secret" by now due to the declassification of large numbers of formerly highly classified US government documents, which show that the United States by 1975 was convinced that Israel had nuclear weapons. Today, Israel is the world's sixth most powerful nuclear state, with a stockpile of more than 100 nuclear weapons and with the components and ability to build atomic, neutron and hydrogen bombs. France contributed a lot in this.

In April 2009, reports surfaced that North Korea has become a "fully fledged nuclear power", an opinion shared by IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei. On May 25, 2009, North Korea conducted another nuclear test, which is believed to have been the cause of a magnitude 4.7 seismic event. Although there is no official information about the test's location, it is believed that it happened in the north-eastern region near Kilju, the site of North Korea's first nuclear test.

Both India and Pakistan built nuclear weapons in 1998.

During the cold war both the Soviets and Americans had thousands of nuclear weapons but that fact stopped any being used, and as we can see it's still working with other countries today.

The prospective of a conflict with Iran would be like Armageddon and must never happen. With the IMF now predicting oil prices could raise between 20%-30% if there was a conflict, this might be the only thing that will focus the minds of the antagonists!

Keith Gregory