tom_thinks

Why Shouldn't Iran Seek Nuclear Weapons? A good question; exactly what is their incentive? The U.S. answer to the question seems to be, "because we told you not to." But when two countries on your border are occupied by the worlds lone(-ranger) superpower and the rest have some military presence by that power, is it in your best interest to surrender your weapons? Tad Daley writes:

Looming over Iran's immediate perception of American threat is the 800-pound gorilla of America's nuclear double standard. George Bush insists that selected other countries have no right to possess nuclear weapons, while at the same time making abundantly clear that we intend to retain thousands into perpetuity. (To be fair, so have other presidents before him -- Republican and Democrat alike.) To the rest of the world this is sanctimonious and self-righteous, suggesting that in our view the U.S. can be 'trusted' with these weapons while others cannot. Such a position is factually questionable. It is morally indefensible. And it is utterly politically unsustainable.
This is especially true when the original Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is understood in its original context. The NPT was not just a framework to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. It was, instead, a grand bargain -- where the great many 'nuclear have-nots' agreed to forego nuclear weapons while the few 'nuclear haves' agreed eventually to get rid of theirs. Moreover, the United States recommitted itself to this covenant at the 30-year NPT Review Conference in spring 2000, where the NPT's nuclear signatories pledged 'an unequivocal undertaking '

The political firestorm over the invasion of Iraq has probably delayed any immediate invasion of Iran, but the U.S. won't be removing its military bases in Iraq or Afghanistan anytime soon. In 2002, George Bush described an 'axis of evil.' So far we have invaded one of these countries (Iraq), surrounded another (Iran) and actually started to remove some troops bordering the other (North Korea). North Korea is the only country in this 'axis' that we know actually has nuclear weapons. What more encouragement could we give Iran to develop its own nuclear stockpile? The U.S. government seems to be saying, "Trust us, we won't use our nuclear weapons on you; don't mind the troops on your borders, we won't invade you, just give up your weapons and we'll help ourselves to that tasty oil."