By Doug Bandow
We don’t want Iran to build nuclear weapons. Understandable. But America has made it very likely that Tehran will build nuclear weapons. Notes Robert Parry:
Also, there is very little chance that these sanctions would stop the production of the bomb, or even slow it down. From the point of view of the ayatollahs, this effort is the prime imperative of national defense – only a country with nuclear arms is immune from American attack. Faced with the repeated threats by American spokesmen to overthrow their regime, no Iranian government could act differently. The more so since during the last century, the Americans and the British have repeatedly done exactly that. Iranian denials are perfunctory. According to all reports, even the most extreme Iranian opponents of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad support the acquisition of the bomb and would rally behind him if attacked.
In today’s world, countries end up in one of two categories. They bomb other nations. Or they get bombed. Possession of nuclear weapons is the most effective way to get into the first category. With the U.S. apparently prepared to wage war against any country for any reason, anyone on America’s “evil” list has an overriding incentive to better arm itself.
Yet another unintended consequence of an interventionist foreign policy.
Doug Bandow, American Conservative Defense Alliance