— For years Iran has been viewed as a coiled serpent in the treacherous terrain of Middle-Eastern diplomacy for the U.S. and its allies. However, the U.S. hasn’t exactly been cute and lovable with its global-scale interactions.

Iran has on many occassion been accused of attempting to develop nuclear weapons. This is a strong accussation and one that must be approached with not just a serious attitude but one of sheer diplomacy. Iran is not a country that lives in fear of sanctions or shows an outward concern at entering into a war with what it views as offending countries.

Most are familiar with Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and his sharply critical rhetoric that is often offensive and rabble-rousing. The good thing is that Ahmadinejad is not the end-all-be-all shot caller everyone assumes he is, that’s a pretty big relief.

Given Ahmadinejad’s inclination to endlessly run his mouth; he has more than once shown that his words, though aggressive and provoking, are only misdirected anger.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, is the one in charge of those decisions. He is the commander-in-chief of Iran’s forces and Admadinejad has no call on foreign policy or nuclear programs.

Khamenei praised Obama for sending a clear message that avoiding aggression is the most viable and sought after avenue for such a volatile situation. Though things are tense, at least there seems to be a little diplomacy in there somewhere.

I suggest that people try to see it from someone else’s eyes. Imagine that Iran is in fact only trying to create a more viable source of energy from their exploration of nuclear technology. Think of Iran as a rebellious child, the harder you push them, the harder they push back. I refuse to believe that there aren’t ways to know what is going on behind the scenes. I’m sure everyone will remember the Bush Administration’s WMDs. If that had been pushed a little more and investigated without bias there would have been a much different view on going to war with Iraq.

Valid concerns about Iran and their possible nuclear efforts certainly exist. Why would a country repeatedly send away inspectors and postpone visits only for inspectors to return to an area that has been wiped clean? Maybe it falls back to the attitude of a troublesome child, cause they can. I will not go so far as to say I trust Iran’s intentions.

There are some very interesting things about Iran that show a slightly different attitude than the one that we are most familiar with. For example, during the Iran-Iraq War, Israel was able to trade arms with Iran. Sure that makes for an odd friendship but you can’t hate someone too much when you are willing to do business with them. Even during that time the two countries continued to speak ill toward one another. Iran also supported the U.S. led war with Afghanistan, the country contributed funds toward the support of U.S.-backed Afghan troops and more than $750 million toward reconstruction efforts.

Those actions don’t make Iran an ally but it shows a willingness to stand next to each other given the proper conditions.

Perhaps the attitude of Iran being involved in an “Axis of Evil,” as stated by the Bush Administration, is a tad harsh. There have been plenty of countries which have at one point in history despised one another, often times resulting in war. Take a look at the American Revolution, World War I and II. Germany is now an ally of the U.S., as is Italy. It took an enormous amount of bloodshed and an irreconcilable sacrifice by fathers, brothers, sons, mothers and daughters alike to end those difficult times in history.

I think keeping a close eye on the actions of Iran is an excellent thing to do, but one must take the rhetoric that rolls off the tongue of Iran, Israel and even the U.S. with a grain of salt. There is a large amount of discord within our country right now and the last thing that we need is to lose focus ourselves.

We can keep tabs on Iran while also attempting to harbor clarity within the U.S. It will do no one any good to foster anger toward a country that is already not our biggest fan.

We must not forget that we have been guilty of some pretty incideous activities ourselves. The constitution never authorized the attack of people or countries that have not attacked us first. So, it is not a point of pride that we found ourselves involved in Korea, Vietnam, the Bay of Pigs, the Gulf War or the funding of dictators and various “pet” wars around the world.

I have an enormous pride in being a citizen of the United States but I refuse to believe that everything we do is a great idea.

Just make sure you remove the beam from your eye before you concern yourself with the speck in your neighbor’s. I don’t personally have tweezers big enough to even begin that process, how about you?

Cody Edgerton is digital content editor for The Port Arthur News. Contact him at cedgerton@panews.com.