Monday, April 10, 2006
(5:04 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
On Not Nuking Iran
What this "nuke Iran" idiocy illustrates is that the system of nuclear deterrence is no longer effective in the case of a rogue nation (such as the United States) striking preemptively at a state without nuclear capacity. Since this is the only system that we've come up with to stave off a nuclear holocaust, perhaps it would be worthwhile to consider reworking it. The idea that leaps to mind is that all nuclear powers other than the United States could sign a treaty effectively taking non-nuclear powers under their wing.To wit: In the event of a preemptive nuclear attack by the United States, all the other nuclear powers would massively respond, in concert, against the United States. This would, at least in theory, reestablish a situation in which the use of a single nuclear weapon would automatically trigger the end of the human race, thereby effectively taking the nuclear option back off the table. Then all of us Americans would get to avoid being in a situation of living in a country whose leaders killed millions of Iranians in a nuclear holocaust on the off-chance that the Iranians might otherwise have gotten nuclear weapons within the next decade!
In short, it is unacceptable that the United States currently has nuclear weapons. Maybe under most circumstances, "we" could be trusted not to use them. But our electoral system sometimes produces strange results.
