In his column today, Charles Krauthammer laments the fact that Iran is moving ahead with its nuclear program. As a solution, he proposes that America extend its nuclear umbrella to Israel:
How to create deterrence? The way John Kennedy did during the Cuban missile crisis. President Bush's greatest contribution to nuclear peace would be to issue the following declaration, adopting Kennedy's language while changing the names of the miscreants:
"It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear attack upon Israel by Iran, or originating in Iran, as an attack by Iran on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon Iran."
But there's another policy besides preventive war and deterrence that Krauthammer refuses to consider -- global nuclear disarmament. One of the major dangers of Iran going nuclear is other states following suit. Turkey and Egypt, for instance, have stepped up their nuclear power industries in recent years. And that's just the Middle East. Instead of viewing Iran and Israel in isolation, as Krauthammer does, they should be seen as parts of a worldwide proliferation problem. Other nuclear states will undoubtedly arise across the globe in the next century. The prospect of having 30 nuclear states--all in an age of suicide terrorism -- has made global disarmament suddenly seem like a realistic scenario instead of a fantastical one. Lest anyone think global nuclear disarmament is a dream exclusive to pie-in-the-sky liberals, George Shultz, Sam Nunn, Colin Powell, Henry Kissinger and, in the last op-ed he wrote before he died, Paul Nitze have all advocated the same thing.
--Jordan Michael Smith
