USA says Iran can't have nuclear weapons. Says China can't have modern silicon.

USA only has a limited amount of time left to dictate these things. We are playing with fire before the world order shifts. It is inevitable, and we would all be better off recognizing this and working towards a better future for all of humanity than trying to pretend like the USA is always going to be able to dictate who gets to do what.

China, by all means, can have as modern silicon as they can produce themselves! And they are not bad at it, just not as good as TSMC.

Iran, OTOH, can't have the nuclear weapons they could produce themselves.

(BTW can your neighbor, who keeps saying that he's going to kill you, or maybe your friend, obtain a machine gun? Would you approve of that?)

> BTW can your neighbor, who keeps saying that he's going to kill you, or maybe your friend, obtain a machine gun?

Definitely. This is America. There is nothing I can do to stop them.

> Would you approve of that?

No, but I don’t really have much of a say in the matter, and that’s kind of the point. I just have to accept it and try to make peace with my neighbor.

Are you suggesting that if your neighbor threatens you that you should just go over and murder them first?

> BTW can your neighbor, who keeps saying that he's going to kill you, or maybe your friend, obtain a machine gun?

Thy are currently doing to Palestinians what they are suggesting Iran would potentially do to them.

If they had a deterrent, Israel would think twice. But since this neighbour stole a machine gun, they can do what they want...

Somehow we have the same feelings about Pakistan as we do Iran for most things in geopolitics, but we let Pakistan have a nuclear program. You know, the nation literally harboring Bin Laden.

It's almost as if geopolitical environments evolve over time.

I don't think anyone today would feel any differently about preventing Pakistan from attaining nuclear weapons.

Unfortunately it's very difficult to take nukes away from a country.

It was a whole lot easier to take nukes away from a country until America fed Ukraine to the wolves. Great job...

Ok? I agree with you. It doesn't change anything I said.

Pakistan / US relations are much, much less strained than Iran / US relations. I'd say Pakistan is more of an ally. Iran is clearly an adversary, its current government declaring the US an enemy and literally Satan.

I wonder what the economics of solar are like Iran. As I understand it, the cost for gasoline/benzine is something like 0.04 USD per liter because of state subsidies. It must be hard to justify investing in solar panels when burning dino juice is so inexpensive. I guess you could argue nuclear makes even less sense in that case.

They could sell the oil instead. Even theocracies like money a whole lot.

Given their general economic state and level of corruption, selling oil is likely to make things much, much worse. Just look at Venezuela.

Also selling oil will only work for a few more decades before people stop buying. It isn't sustainable anymore

Sell oil, use income to diversify the economy is a well worn strategy.

There were diplomatic treaties from Obama that worked, and that Trump cancelled in his last mandate. Doing things competently often allows one to get strictly better outcomes in life, and the current US regime is just horrible.