Posted by
lge on Thursday, September 07, 2006 3:02:36 AM
That's what Ahmadinejad says -- that Iran is a sovereign nation, just like all the others, and has a right to the Bomb.
Yes, Iran is a sovereign nation. And it's led by a homicidal maniac. Ahmadinejad is one rabid dog who really would drop the bomb, I think. So it's not a question of what Iran has a "right" to, it's a question of whether her neighbors and other nations (i.e., Israel and the U.S.) think it is prudent to let them develop the Bomb. And then it's a question of whether those nations are willing to fight about it.
That's why there's no such thing as "international law". That concept is a fiction; law stops at the water's edge. After that there is only international agreement (or disagreement), and force.
In situations like this, Israel can't afford to let some international "jury" decide whether Iran has a "right" to the bomb. A randomly picked jury of twelve nations would most likely say, "Israel, go hang." Or more precisely, "Our hands are tied. According to the International Constitution and Statutes, Article LXXVIII Section 137.A, part C, Iran has a right to nuclear weapons to defend herself. Whatever nuclear destruction follows is not our business."
What nation would submit its fate to such pettyfogging pedantry? "International Law" exists only until some nation decides to break that law -- then it's force against force, as it has been since there have even BEEN nations. The question before Israel, the U.S., and possibly other countries, is the same question that has faced nations since the world began -- "Is this a 'casus belli', something we need to go to war over, or can we afford to ignore it?" And the United Nations, Kofi Annan with his Napoleon complex, and all other would-be world-rulers are strictly irrelevant.