Today is the first of May. For socialists it’s a worker’s holiday. For people associated with aircraft (and shipping) it’s a cry for help. This last interpretation comes from the French, m’aidez. It means that someone is in a crisis, It is the way I feel after listening to Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu describe Iranian nuclear activities last night.
I was in a special non-credit seminar at the University of Michigan when the Center for Conflict Resolution was still located there. I got to actually meet Herman Kahn, the author of On Thermonuclear War and Thinking About the Unthinkable, both of which I actually read, That experience shaped my attitude towards nuclear weapons. They are horrible! They should be banned (although how to enforce such a ban is a separate and very difficult problem). Nuclear weapons are extremely expensive, and any funding directed to military nuclear programs ought to be better spent elsewhere.
There will be a lot of commentary about the Israeli disclosures from last night. Much of it will be influenced by previous political stances. Some will be dismissive, There will be statements that Netanyahu is not objective, that his evidence is out of date, or was already known. Some will claim that the current agreements are being kept. Others will say no better agreement could be reached. Such commentary must not be allowed to kill the main objective of the original negotiation which was to keep Iran from acquiring any nuclear weapons. Everyone knows that the current agreement is deeply flawed. Something is needed to replace it. New agreements must be based on trust, but the disclosures last night make me doubt that any position put forward by Iran could ever be trusted.
I don’t know what the solution is, but the track record of democratic states in diplomatic dealings with authoritarian powers like Iran is not good. The evidence of duplicity means, to me, that Iran must not be allowed to hide behind claims of national sovereignty or security in order to continue taking steps toward getting nuclear weapons. Not Ever!
Wetherhorn 