Comment by imbokodo | Hacker News Reader

Comment by imbokodo | Hacker News Reader

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> There is zero commitment from the major nuclear powers for an eventual complete denuclearization

The nuclear powers agreed as part of the 1970 treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, particularly article 6, that they would pursue a complete nuclear disarmament. Of course, they have not fulfilled their obligations over the past half century and non-nuclear powers have complained about this, and the International Court of Justice agreed with them in 1996. A UN resolution in 1999 condemned the US for restarting a nuclear race - only the US, Israel, Albania and Micronesia voted against it. Bush withdrew from the ABM treaty in 2002. The US has been in a nuclear arms race since then.

This is the crux of the Iran issue. Look at what country borders Iran to the east. What has the US done there in the past few years? Now look at what country borders Iran to the west. What has the US done there in the past few years?

I say this as an Israeli who has genuine concern for my children's well being. Iran has legitimate nuclear ambitions. The chain leading up to those ambitions is difficult for some people to admit, and the direction that those ambitions are pushing Iran may very well harm my family. But I don't blame the Iranians themselves for the position that they are in.

My Iranian wife (lived there until well into adulthood) had to live several years in Germany until she understood that Israel was a democracy with civil liberties and rule of law and had a real reason to fear the Iranians. She recognized that she had been under propaganda for so long that she subconsciously believed that Israel was Satan and had to learn the real threat was the other way round.

Stupid thing is. As long as the US still positions itself as nuclear force and world police there will always be other states that try to hold against this force.

Even personally I feel saver knowing other countries are able to defend them self, making it less likely to end up as collateral damage for the US democratisation process.

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