Richard Cohen's defense of Iran's nuclear ambitions ["How to Defuse Iran," op-ed, Nov. 23] ignored important evidence--the voices of Iranians.

Dissidents such as the students I met in Tehran during the 1999 democracy protests fear that a nuclear Iran will feel immune to retribution and may engage in a crackdown that would make China's 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown look mild.

Hardliners also have indicated their intent. In September 2003, officials paraded a banner reading "Israel must be uprooted and erased from history" over the Shihab-3 missile. In December 2001, former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani proposed a nuclear first strike against Israel.

Such statements belie Iranian protests that they desire security. Their aim is quite the opposite.

Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.