Neil MacFarquhar writes about Iran and the bomb:
Not only do Iranians take pride in their scientific accomplishments, but they are keenly aware of the fineprint in the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
“Western countries are not recognizing Iran’s legitimate right to use nuclear energy because of this government’s hostile attitude toward the United States and its lack of legitimacy,” said Mehdi Aminzadeh, one of the leaders of the student protest movement.
:::flip:::
Young Mr. Aminzadeh is correct. His government is hostile to the United States. The American government is hostile toward the Mullahs. Both countries are ostensibly democracies. But both countries have serious flaws with their electoral system. We can’t count votes; they don’t let everyone run for office.
The biggest flaw in the Iranian system involves the Council of Guardians. The Iranian constitution “provides the Council of Guardians the power to screen and disqualify candidates for elective offices based on an ill-defined set of requirements, including candidates’ ideological beliefs.”
The Guardians have been disqualifying an increasing number of candidates in recent years. Imagine Sam Brownback and eleven other wingnuts having the power to tell Teddy Kennedy and Hillary Clinton that they are not Christian enough to run for elective office. That is where the lack of legitimacy comes into play.
Now it’s come to this:
AP: ABC News
It’s a good bet that the six approved candidates are not friends of BushCo. or the United States Congress. And it’s a good bet that they are not friends of the Iranian student movement, or of decent Iranians, more generally. We have legitimate concerns about such a government gaining nuclear weapon capability while we have over 100,000 troops next door.
We also have good reason to distrust the Mullahs’ professions of innocence. They claim they only want nuclear power, not nuclear weapons.
This is a big topic. There are many facets to Iran’s efforts to develop nuclear energy and nuclear explosives. I can’t discuss them all here.
But one thing I will say:
Iran signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and they ought to be bound by it. The world does not need more nuclear weapons. And the world really doesn’t need such weapons in the hands of non-reality based wingnuts of the Islamic/Santorum variety.
But if we are going to successfully prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons we have to have legitimacy and we have to have allies. We cannot invade other countries on the basis of forged documents and the delusions of drunk nephews. We cannot develop a line of mini-nuke bunker buster weapons. We cannot nominate men like John Bolton to be the ambassador to the United Nations.
It would be nice if everyone agreed to either destroy or cease developing their nuclear weapons. But it won’t happen unless the United Nations is more successful at preventing illegal wars and providing real collective security. We cannot pursue unilateralism and non-proliferation at the same time. The following should help explain why: