IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM

Everybody--including Russia and China--apparently believes that nuclear weapons in Iran’s hands is a bad idea. Iran with nuclear weapons would destabilize the region, lead to more countries going nuclear, possibly serve as a source of supply to terrorists, and could lead to a nuclear exchange or two. But Iran continues to build centrifuges, which turn out the stuff that nuclear weapons are made of. So how can Iran’s nuclear project to build bombs be halted?

First, the UN must make it clear, if it has not done so already, that Iran must not--is forbidden--to build nuclear weapons. The resolution must be clear and must be agreed to by all the nuclear powers, including Russia and China. With the resolution in place, the International Atomic Energy Agency should demand that Iran open its nuclear facilities to completely unhindered inspections. Assume that Iran lets the inspectors in and they find that Iran clearly has a bomb making program. In this case International Atomic Energy Agency should be given the power to halt and then dismantle the program. The centrifuges would be removed from Iran or destroyed on the spot.

If Iran balks at the inspections, this can be considered clear and convincing evidence that Iran is probably in violation of the UN mandate against building nuclear weapons.

The next step should be “Inspection By Force”. In other words, the International Atomic Energy Agency has the right to enter Iran and inspect its nuclear facilities without Iran’s permission. Sovereignty in this situation, as in war, has no validity.

“Inspection By Force” means that a small armored force would drive up to Iran’s border and announce its purpose of inspecting Iran’s nuclear program by authority of the UN resolution. If Iran refuses to admit the inspection force, the force should attempt to enter anyway, up to the point of an exchange of gunfire. Assuming the force consists of armored vehicles, and no large weapons are brought to bear, no bloodshed should occur. If gunfire starts, the force should halt and attempt to hold whatever position it has attained. If it appears that annihilation may occur, the force should return to Iran’s border and remain there.

Psychological and diplomatic means should also be used. First, all the nuclear nations should agree on a “No First Use of Nuclear Weapons”. Iran should be induced to pledge something similar, such as, “In the even that Iran develops nuclear weapons in the future, it agrees to the No First Use pledge”.

Then a second agreement should be signed by all the nuclear powers to the effect that all of them will retaliate against any country that uses a nuclear weapon, regardless of whether it has agreed to the No First Use pledge or not.

The two agreements would effectively lead to the trivialization of all nuclear weapons, including those of the US and Russia. In actuality, nuclear weapons have not been usable since the end of WWII. The use of nuclear bombs on Japan in 1945 showed the whole world what these weapons can do. No country has dared to use one since that time, leaving terrorists as the only likely users. In a sense, the world is lucky to have the examples of the Japan nuclear bombings to look back on. If these examples did not exist, would the US and Russia have been as cautious as they actually were during the Cuban missile crisis? Would some other crisis have lead to a nuclear exchange? The human race does not seem able to learn really important things by applying logic and common sense. We seem to need a horrible example to drive home the point. We’ve had two applications of nuclear bombs . We don’t need another one.