the US should not attack Iran

Thank you. I will now post additional Arguments and my Rebuttal An Attack will not stop Iran's nuclear ambitions.Attacking Iran's openly declared and safeguarded facilities won't stop Iran's nuclear program. It will simply drive the program underground while creating or hardening Iran's resolve to pursue nuclear weapons in secret. Per Sec. of Defense Robert Gates (May 2009) - "A military attack will only buy us time and send the [Iranian nuclear] program deeper and more covert". The Disadvantages of an AttackEven those who favor the military option admit that a ground invasion is out of the question. But bombing Iran's nuclear facilities without a subsequent invasion would merely trigger rage in Iran, and solidify their intention to pursue nuclear weapons in secret. Nuclear capacity lies mostly in knowledge. Facilities can be hidden. If hit and destroyed they can be re-built. As Secretary of Defense Gates put it: "Even a military attack will only buy us time and send the program deeper and more covert." Breach of International LawAttacking Iran's facilities that are enriching uranium to low levels under full IAEA safeguards would constitute a lawless act of aggression that would isolate the United States and Israel, not Iran. International law on the use of force is crystal clear: nations may use unilateral force only to defend themselves against attack or imminent threat of attack. moreIn this case, even Israel's Mossad doesn't claim that Iran will be able to produce a bomb before 2014. U.S. intelligence agencies believe it will take until at least 2013. So there is not even a fig leaf argument that attacking Iran could be justified by self-defense. Attacking Iran under such circumstances would trample existing law, while perversely reinforcing the discredited doctrine of "preventive war" that President Bush invoked in justifying the war in Iraq: that notion that one country may attack another whenever the first country feels threatened by the second. This is not a prescription for peace and security. It is a formula for perpetual war.The scope of Iran's nuclear facilities Iran's nuclear facilities involve much more than a single reactor. There are dozens of nuclear facilities scattered in population centers around the country. Bombing these facilities would kill large numbers of Iranian civilians, with disastrous consequences not only for the victims and their loved ones, but for the United States. Consequences of an attackDespite a long history of conflict at the official level, the Iranian people are more pro-American than any population outside Israel. They held candle-light vigils for America in the streets of Tehran after 9/11. Bombing Iran would change all that. A population that is now largely pro-American and angry with their own government would be enraged against the United States, and would rally round the flag against a foreign enemy (just as we would in their shoes). It is hard to imagine a better way to play into the hands of hardliners in Iran. The RegionAttacking Iran would unleash chaos throughout the region, putting our troops' lives at risk and undermine the war on terror. As part of its deterrent to a feared U.S./Israeli attack, Iran has assiduously developed close relationships with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Iran, militias in Iraq and warlord clans in Afghanistan. These groups are not puppets of Iran. They have their own agendas. Nonetheless, experts find it quite likely that some or all of these groups would retaliate against U.S. forces as a gesture of solidarity with Iran, particularly if they perceived Iran to have been attacked without just cause. Our troops' lives would be put at risk by any rash decision to attack Iran. Terrorists thrive on hate. They find their refuge and recruits in hostile populations. With Pakistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Egypt already hotbeds of anti-American feeling and terrorist recruiting, America cannot afford to be turning yet another large Muslim population against the United States. The Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).An Attack on Iran would undermine the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Bombing declared facilities operating under under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection would send a terrible signal about the costs of cooperating with the IAEA. It could well undermine the NPT and IAEA safeguards regime around the globe. An Attack would be PrematureAttacking Iran would be premature. Iran is years away from having a nuclear weapon, if it is pursuing one at all. Meanwhile, the United States has squandered six years refusing to talk to Iran until it suspended enrichment. We owe it to ourselves and the world to give diplomacy a chance before resorting to violence or draconian sanctions that could well lead to violence. The threat of ForceThreatening force while lacking a credible scenario for using it would be self-defeating.The Iranian leadership is fully aware of all the factors just cited, and has publicly dismissed the threat of force as incredible. So any bluff in this area is highly likely to be called.Moreover, threats of force poison the waters of diplomacy. They isolate the United States in world opinion. they also entrench hard liners in Tehran who already are predicting - hopefully - that this President will turn out to be no different from President Bush.RebuttalAny preemptive strike, regardless of how advantageous it may seem would clearly violate international and US lawsI stand by all my arguments that I have put forward. I will now await my con's response. Sources.http://americanforeignpolicy.org... www.wikipedia.org http://www.csmonitor.com...