Transition strategy: If Iran goes nuclear

[Administrator]

Iran and its nuclear program will be a top issue for the Obama administration. Both U.S. political parties have declared an Iranian nuclear weapons capability to be “unacceptable.” We all believe that we would better off if we lived in a world of fewer nuclear powers, and if erratic and ambitious states such as Iran did not develop nuclear weapons.

http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2008/12/3809524

[The Universal Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by Administrator

Iran and its nuclear program will be a top issue for the Obama administration. Both U.S. political parties have declared an Iranian nuclear weapons capability to be “unacceptable.” We all believe that we would better off if we lived in a world of fewer nuclear powers, and if erratic and ambitious states such as Iran did not develop nuclear weapons.

The interesting question that the statement raises is "What other 'weapons' are 'unacceptable' and which countries cannot have them?"

This, of course, raises the secondary question "Exactly why does the government of the United States of America think that it rules the world?".

That, of course, raises the tertiary question "Exactly what 'laws' or 'policies' or 'politics' are 'unacceptable' and why does the government of the United States of America think that it has the right to dictate how other people think?".

As an aside, I believe that the definition of "fewer" that is the operative one as far as the government of the United States of America is concerned is "just us".

[Ganders1]

It is the economic and military power of the US that makes it the "Leader of the World" it is not some title that the US was given through some election or committee.
Every community needs a structure and a heirarchy and the World Community is no exception. There will always be those in the community that chafe and buck at the established order. If the US was not leading and at times, dictating, then someone else will. As a non-US citizen or resident, I am quick to say that I shall want noone else leading the world community.

The assertion that every country has an equal right to produce and maintain nuclear weapons is anarchist and dangerous.
With the exception of Pakistan, the declared and non declared nuclear powers of the world are stable, long standing members of the club. It may be said that all possess government structures that produce rational and "responsible" leadership.
Allowing a fascist theocracy who adopts a most extremely aggressive posture in the region and the world, to attain nuclear capability is nothing but the epitome of weakness, impotency and utter folly. All in the name of some half baked notion of international equality and "justice".

Sadly, the obsession with enlightenment in the West has led to a total lack of will to confront danger to civilization with every means.
Europe seems resigned to a nuclear Iran, envisioning some form of regime of deterrence similar to the bygone Cold War. Those days are regarded with seeming nostalgia, and is preferable to the use of force to prevent a nuclear Iran and North Korea.

It is this attitude precisely, that will ultimately render Western Civilization defenseless against any more determined threat.