Iran's threat means working even harder for peace

Let's ignore Dr Strangelove. Iran's threat means working even harder for peace

It is a delusion to think you can have WMD and never use them

Dan Plesch


How can we manage Iran's alleged ambition to build the bomb without resorting to pre-emptive war? Accepting for a moment that the Bush administration is telling us the truth about Iran, the alternatives are to manage Iran as a nuclear weapon state or to make disarmament the key objective for all countries, including India, Israel, Pakistan and the West. The Americans have to fulfil their obligation under Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to get rid of their own weapons, along with everyone else.

At present, disarmament is imposed by coercion on those states out of favour with the White House. Tony Blair and George Bush preach "Do as we say, not as we do", an attitude no more effective internationally than at home. If such a U-turn in Western policy seems as unrealistic as creating peace by launching another pre-emptive war, let's think about managing with many nuclear-armed states in the 21st century.

...


Thankfully, most of the world is still working for disarmament. The South African foreign affairs minister, Abdul Minty, put the view of the majority of nations: "Those who rely on nuclear weapons to demonstrate and exercise power should recognise that such dependence only serves to increase insecurity."

Mr Minty is ignored by our Western media and political elites. We have forgotten that the only triumph in Iraq was that the UN inspectors got it right. In Iran, too, Mohamed ElBaradei and his colleagues at the International Atomic Energy Agency have been effective in uncovering Iranian deception. Even better inspection systems are only held up because countries fear the imposition of double standards. On biological weapons it is President Bush who vetoed new, effective global verification measures.

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http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article357928.ece

so so often.

our "civilisation" would collapse if we didn't pump so many billions into war and weapons. Like scrambling desperately up a muddy river bank with an alligator snapping at our heels - an alligator we've bred ourselves.

Amazing, isn't it, how much we promote war and warriors and sneer at peace and those who advocate non violence.

(edited for spelling...)

Another thing the US should do is stop applying double standards. At the very least it should stop diluting the non proliferation treaty.