Historical commentary on US imperialism and Iran nuclear threat

26 revolt against Colombia to acquire what became the Panama Canal Zone in 1903. The new Panamanian government gave the United States the French concession to construct the Canal, which the United States completed in 1914. But President Jimmy Carter returned both the Zone and the Canal to the Panamanians in 1977. Yes, in 1945, President Harry Truman ordered the U.S. Army Air Force to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, thus ending Japan’s participation in World War II. Yes, for a few years, the United States was the only power with nuclear weapons on this planet, but we blackmailed no one. Nor did we take anyone’s land. By contrast, the Soviet Union incorporated huge swaths of post-war Poland and Germany. If we compare the United States to Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome—or for that matter, Ottoman Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Japan, Russia, Britain, and France—we can only conclude that the United States was and is the least warlike and least imperialistic super power in history. Of course, there is the question of war within the context of a nuclear- armed Iran. A few years ago, Thomas Friedman of the New York Times wrote, “I’d rather live with a nuclear Iran because it is the wisest thing under the circumstances.” Thomas Friedman may feel this way, but for the leaders of Israel, an Iranian nuclear bomb and its associated delivery systems raise existential questions. Can the Jewish state live with an Iran that possesses nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them? Can it ignore an Iranian leader who labels the country “a fake regime” that ought to “be wiped off the face of the Earth?” How should it react to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s plans for a second Holocaust, even as he denies that the first one ever happened? Millions of Israelis are descendants of those who died in the Holocaust. In 1981, when Iraq threatened Israel, Israel’s then prime minister, Menachem Begin, ordered the HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_023542