Iran and Defiance

20060110

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        Iran reopened its uranium enrichment plants today, in direct defiance of its agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN, and the European Union. Like the slow motion effect of the mind in a car accident, Iran defiantly moves toward building nuclear weapons.

         Some might argue that any nation has the right to develop whatever weapons it feels it needs to defend itself against its enemies. This is a premise that holds some merit, although with weapons of mass destruction, that merit wanes significantly. Still, most nations in the possession of nuclear weapons could be trusted to use them for their intended purpose, as a deterrent against a determined enemy. If this current crisis were Canada developing nuclear weapons, the world would be far less concerned, granted that Canada would likely be far more cooperative.

         The problem here is not the empirical development of nuclear weapons. Consider the case of Pakistan and India. While it is regrettable and troubling that both nations possess those weapons, the fact that both these adversaries have them makes both of them less likely to use them. Perhaps, at some level, Pakistan and India possessing these weapons makes the world more dangerous, but not in a way that is a direct threat to the rest of the world.

         The problem with Iran possessing nuclear weapons is entirely different. Iran is not developing weapons to deter an enemy; it is developing those weapons to use them on an enemy. In the same way that Iran directly funds the activities of Palestinian and the Iraqi terrorists, Iran will find a way to use a nuclear weapon directly to afflict its self-proclaimed enemies.

         Israel will likely be the target of such an action. Iran has never previously possessed the military capacity to attack Israel directly, but in the past decade, it has developed ballistic missiles capable of striking Israel and engaged in the development of technology that will allow it to produce nuclear weapons.

         Additionally, Iran recently installed an ultra-hardline Islamic government, led by the ineffable Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his rhetoric of hate. This government reinforces the underlying goal of the theocratic state of Iran, the domination of Islam over the world by any means necessary including force and massacre.

         Consider, then, the outcome of Iran with nuclear weapons. There are few circumstances under which it is unimaginable that Iran might actually attempt to use those weapons in the pursuit of its goal of ridding the Middle East of Israel. In fact, it is completely plausible that Iran might use those weapons as soon as they are available to them for that very purpose.

         What is the solution? Unfortunately, the available options are few and growing less as each day passes. Ultimately, this problem will only be solved by force, from either within Iran or without. Either way, Iran will not cease its actions until it is forced to, and sanctions and words rarely accomplish force. Someone must do something, or this nightmare will end only one way.

DLH