The problem with the anti-attack crowd is that, even if the US deserves it or has no right meddling in the affairs of Iran, it doesn’t really ever address how it thinks Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons would affect its behavior, or the behavior of its neighbors.
Without claiming to know for sure, it seems to me that if I were Saudi Arabia or Turkey or Egypt, I’d surely want to have my own credible nuclear deterrent, and – if I also believed the USA was no longer a credible partner or superpower – I’d want to have my own nuclear arsenal. Otherwise, I would be looking at a country opposed to my own interests for various reasons, and left in the position that, even if I should defend myself in a conventional war, I would be open to nuclear attack on my own or two cities, or my one real economic resource (oil fields). I would also have to consider that maybe the typical UN or international response of letter-writing and verbal denunciation really would not be that much help to me while my oil fields were burning and the clients whose loyalty I secure by providing them with oil-money were getting quickly restless.
That Arab, predominantly self-consciously Sunni, neighbors would look at a Persian-Shiite Bomb in this way is a certainty.
Again, presuming that the USA is discreditted politically and militarily, how could these countries’ demands for indigenous nuclear weapons capability reasonably be denied to them? Even if you hate the USA and Israel, and even if you believe Iranians are wonderful people who do not like their government and cannot be held accountable for that government’s behavior – don’t you think that it’s reasonable to infer from *Iran’s* behavior that, if you were one of its neighbors, you have reason to worry that a nuclear Iran is cause for serious concern?
The main problem, Lefties, is that somehow your conclusion that the USA is at fault is all there is to it. That no governments or other cultures have a character and agency of their own, no habits of their own, virtually nothing that they are or do that is not accountable by the fact of US malevolence or incompetence. Do you really believe that?
When you see Ahmedinejad and his predecessors, and hear about Iran’s society, and understand the connections among Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah – do you really think this is just a response to US Imperialism, that it’s all just desperate self-defense by weaker nations? When you see the concern of Israelis, do you really just believe that concern is a figment of Zionist paranoia, some sort of manipulation?
What we non-Lefties don’t understand is what do *you* think Iran is doing with its nuclear program, what are its likely goals, how are they to be assessed? What, above all, *do* you really think an indigenous, viable nuclear program will do to Iran’s behavior?
And what about Russia’s provision of its nuclear technology – particularly in light of the recent Russia-Venezuela to provide *that* oil-sodden country with a nuclear program “for peaceful purposes”? Do you really believe Putin, Chavez, and Ahmedinejad?
