Sunday, October 21, 2007

Should we let Iran get the bomb?

There's an interesting thread over at Bojack.org, in which Jack Bogdanski laments Dick Cheney's increasingly definitive statements that we will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear bomb. He predicts we will be bombing them by Christmas.

I asked if we should just allow Iran to get the bomb. I think it's a pretty reasonable question. I sure don't relish the thought of another armed conflict, but seriously - we are just going to sit back and let that madman have a nuclear weapon? The guy who has made it very clear that he wants to wipe Israel off the face of the map?

I was surprised by some of the responses to my question. They said, basically: Of course!

Iran is a sovereign nation, they say, and we have no right to dictate to them that they can't have the bomb.

I especially like this comment:

"Who the hell died and made us God. What would we do if France told us "no more war without UN approval." We would tell them to kiss off. Iran is a sovereign nation that has the right to do what it wants to do. If the international community deems their actions inappropriate, then the international community can take action."

On the one hand he says we would tell France to kiss off if they told us we needed UN approval to go to war, but he then says basically that the only way we could intervene in Iran is with the "international community" agrees! Which is it?

It is pretty frightening to me that this kind of thinking is apparently widespread. Rogue states like Iran have the right to get nuclear weapons? I am afraid that every Democrat candidate for President would actually let it happen.

Seems to me that when Ahmadinejad says he wants to wipe out Israel, we ought to take him seriously. And that means we can't let him have the means to fulfill his plans.

I wonder what these folks would say if Ahmadinejad got a nuke and lobbed it over to Tel-Aviv? So sorry!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those comments are an object lesson in why the left should never be in charge of the military. They simply do not believe that America is worthy of defending, because truth be told, they don't actually believe in the America that was founded in 1776.

They believe in the America they hoped was going to be based on collectivist ideology, so they really don't get all that worked up about threats to our nation.

Anonymous said...

I apologize for reducing everything to its political components, but this attitude is one of the reasons American Jewish voters are currently flocking to the Republicans. I saw a recent report on CNN that said polling shows 25 percent of American Jews now voting Republican in 2008. This is way, way up from single digits and moving.

Now, 25 percent of Jewish Americans is not a huge number - certainly not election changing, unless the election you're talking about is close and, say, your candidate has to win Florida to be elected President.

Anonymous said...

Ok, so particularly humorous is the statement "if the international community deems their actions inappropriate, the international community can take action." The "action" we're talking about here is Iran exploding a nuclear weapon - the most powerful ever exploded over a populated area - in Israel. I think (well, I sure hope) the international community will find this action "inappropriate," but I don't suspect the Israelis are going to be real appreciative of whatever "action" the international community will take in response.

Ken said...

If a bomb falls on Israel, UN sanctions won't mean a whole lot when the Israelis are scraping their families' remains out of the crater that used to hold 3 million Tel Aviv residents.

Anonymous said...

Hi Rob:

Although he is widely quoted as saying so, Ahmadinejad has never said he wants to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. Juan Cole has a detailed analysis of the translation here: http://www.juancole.com/2006/05/hitchens-hacker-and-hitchens.html

-Mick