"You are right. You can never be 100% accurate about anyones intentions so you have to interpret the actions and what they mean and what will be the consequences. All we have is history to go by. The Soviets in the beginning of the Cold War did not act rational. I feel after WWII till close to the late 50s the Soviets felt that the West didn't have the stomach nor will for conflict. Kennedy seemed to call the Soviets bluff during the Cuban Missile Crisis or kick them back to reality. Suddenly after that nuclear test ban and other nuke treaties were started. The Western world has not pushed back at all Iran since their revolution in the late 70's. I don't see Iran backing down. This last offer by the Russians looked to be a group idea. It seems that the West was getting anxious about what Iran was doing and saying and came up with the idea of calling Iran's hand. Basically if Iran is so into getting nuke technology for electric power then the Russians can do part of the process and you can still benefit. Now one can say that Iran just want it's own "nuclear independence" like the many other nations. The only problem is Iran has lost the privilege due to it's actions in the past. I always ask anyone who brings this subject up "Are you willing to let Iran have a nuclear weapon?" Plain and simple. I never hear anyone say a clear and definite "Yes." "
Speaking of the Soviets, the Russians are selling everything to everyone these days with zero global responsibility. Like all civilizations, they still want to be on top. Draining our resources on conflicts which Russia arms helps acheieve that goal, or so they seem to think. They are playing the worst possible scenerio by emboldening the mullahs. This ongoing strategy of arming our adversaries (we gave up on that after the Soviet Afghan invasion) will backfire on them and have severe consequences. I almost feel that we should do what Kennedy did and play chicken with them again by arming a Russian adversary but our ally with nuclear technology to develop a weapons program. Chechnya would be on equel level and perfect if Al Queda had not infltrated the country.