by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n
Private Papers<\/i><\/p>\n
A<\/span>s is common to our age, reality has taken a second-seat to rhetoric. Wherever and whenever talk of Weapons of Mass Destruction and non-proliferation occur, the question arises: is it not hypocritical for the U.S., who is armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons, to bully Iran and North Korea in order that the latter not realize their atomic goals?<\/p>\n In fact, widespread talk of \u201cfair play\u201d and U.S. hypocrisy seem to dominate all discussion of WMD and non-proliferation. Even top officials allude to it. Speaking at Southern Illinois University recently, Former United Nations Chief Weapons Inspector Hans Blix suggested that the U.S. lead by \u201cexample\u201d by signing the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Said Blix:<\/p>\n \u201cIf the U.S. ratified it, I’m\u00a0pretty<\/i>\u00a0sure China would. And if China does, I\u00a0think<\/i>India will, then Pakistan will, then I\u00a0think<\/i>\u00a0Iran would, and then Israel and we\u2019ll have seen the end of all nuclear tests.\u201d He then concluded that \u201cDouble standards serve as both\u00a0unfair<\/i>\u00a0and humiliating\u201d (emphasis added).<\/p>\n This plausible sentiment seems to be well-shared across the globe. However, how \u201chypocritical\u201d the U.S. is really depends on one\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n F<\/span>or starters, the issue at stake is not \u201cequality\u201d or, as Blix alludes, \u201cfairness\u201d \u2014 all pretty and popular terms that exist in the theoretical \u2014 but the very real annihilation of millions of people around the globe. Having WMD is therefore not a God-given right in the same vein as \u201clife, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.\u201d Quite the contrary. Before \u201cfairness\u201d can flourish, universal peace must first be established. But where there is no peace or where animosity thrives \u2014 Iran has been calling the U.S. the \u201cGreat Satan\u201d for nearly three decades now \u2014 \u201cfairness\u201d must wait.<\/p>\n Blix further declared that \u201cThe past conflicts were about territory, or about borders, or ideologies, religion, but those things don\u2019t exist here, they\u2019re now quarreling about who can have what weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n The fact that we live in a world composed of dozens of different nations, with their own flags, cultures, ideologies and religions, and with very real borders, proves that \u201cthose things\u201d\u00a0do<\/i>\u00a0exist. And unfortunately they often\u00a0do<\/i>\u00a0lead to \u201cconflicts,\u201d that is, wars. In such a context, why would the U.S. voluntarily want to give up its superior arms \u2014 and all in the name of \u201cfairness\u201d? What if the U.S., acting out of goodwill and wishing to lead by example as Blix recommends, were to begin eliminating its stockpiles; and then what if China, India, Pakistan, Iran, and North Korea \u2014 with the exception of India, all non-democracies \u2014 only pretended to reciprocate while clandestinely developing WMD?<\/p>\n A<\/span>nother argument is that nations such as Iran and North Korea only want to \u201cdefend\u201d themselves from WMD of the U.S. This popular \u201cdeterrent\u201d argument is flawed.<\/p>\n The concept of WMD as deterrents rests on the \u201cbalance of power\u201d theory. Political scientists often argue that when competing nations are equally armed, the chances of them actually going to war diminishes greatly, such as in the Cold War. But that is not always so: in the early 20th<\/sup>\u00a0century, the competing powers of Europe had a \u201cbalance of power.\u201d Yet two devastating world wars still took place. With only conventional weapons, millions died. Imagine if WMD had existed in these wars. What if Hitler had nukes?<\/p>\n Many have pointed out that the only nation to have used WMD thus far is the U.S. However, that\u00a0was<\/i>\u00a0in defense since the U.S. used them on Japan only after imperialist Japan first attacked the U.S. at Pearl Harbor.<\/p>\n Also, the U.S. was the first to use WMD because it first developed them. And the U.S., or the West in general, was the first to develop WMD not because of any greater bellicosity in comparison to the rest of the world, but because it discovered the necessary knowledge to do so. Who doubts that if pre-modern, non-Western peoples had WMD \u2014 from Attila the Hun to Shaka Zulu \u2014 that they would have used them?<\/p>\n Likewise some Muslims, who otherwise are not supposed to kill innocent women and children in their jihads, have already rationalized using WMD by precedents set by Muhammad\u2019s words and deeds dating back to the 7th<\/sup>century. He permitted the use of devastating catapults that did not differentiate women and children from fighting males in his siege of the village of Ta\u2019if. When asked about this discrepancy, he replied only that \u201cThey [women and children] are from among them [fighting male infidels].\u201d<\/p>\n Moreover, the West was first to develop WMD because Western values such as political freedom, capitalism, democracy, and especially rationalism and open debate led to scientific innovation, making, among other things, the existence of WMD possible. Conversely, the same lack of political freedom, capitalism, democracy, rationalism, and open debate that has prevented many non-Western nations from developing WMD will also be responsible for their using WMD recklessly, should they ever acquire them.<\/p>\n F<\/span>inally, in regards to the question of hypocrisy, one must ask some hypothetical questions.\u00a0 What if the shoe were on the other foot? What if Iran had acquired WMD before the West? Does anyone think that Iran would even contemplate letting the West develop their own WMD, for \u201cself-defense\u201d? Indeed, in such a scenario, there probably wouldn\u2019t be a \u201cWest\u201d to speak of \u2014 much less a United Nations to debate such issues. The \u201cWest\u201d as we know it would be the \u201cwestern\u201d part of the Iranian caliphate.<\/p>\n So until that utopian day comes when there are no longer any physical or metaphysical boundaries between the various peoples of the world, the U.S. should unashamedly maintain its stockpile of WMD while simultaneously preventing others \u2014 especially those who are openly hostile to the U.S. \u2014 from acquiring them. The alternative is much worse for all concerned.<\/p>\n Raymond Ibrahim is a research librarian at the Library of Congress. His new book,\u00a0<\/i>The Al Qaeda Reader,\u00a0<\/i>which translates Osama bin Laden’s communiqu<\/i><\/span>\u00e9s,\u00a0will be available in April 2007<\/i>.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The reasonable concerns of the U.S. in WMD diplomacy by Raymond Ibrahim Private Papers As is common to our age, reality has taken a second-seat to rhetoric.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[227,760],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1qI","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6445,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/putin-puts-obama-in-hot-seat-what-will-you-do-if-rebels-are-ones-using-chemical-weapons\/","url_meta":{"origin":5500,"position":0},"title":"Putin Puts Obama in Hot Seat: ‘What Will You Do If Rebels Are Ones Using Chemical Weapons?’","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0RaymondIbrahim.com \u00a0 Russian President Vladimir Putin has a strange way of speaking straightforwardly, without all the artificial and \u201cmorally superior\u201d airs one expects from Western politicians. Earlier, for example, he\u00a0wondered why Western leaders were supporting\u00a0cannibals\u00a0in Syria: You will not deny that one does not really need to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Syria"","block_context":{"text":"Syria","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/syria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/efw_0-300x205.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6376,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/syrian-surrealities\/","url_meta":{"origin":5500,"position":1},"title":"Syrian Surrealities","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0NRO's The Corner Once again we are trying to rally the American people about the dangers of purported WMD use; this time around, the Syrians may be doing to their own what Saddam Hussein most certainly did to the Kurds.\u00a0John Kerry gave an impassioned speech that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Syria"","block_context":{"text":"Syria","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/syria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11249,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/strategika-issue-51-nuclear-proliferation\/","url_meta":{"origin":5500,"position":2},"title":"Strategika Issue 51: Nuclear Proliferation","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Should More Nations Have Nukes? Please read a new essay by my colleague, Gordon G. Chang in Strategika. There is only one weapon that poses an existential threat to the United States, so why should America want other nations to possess it? The simple answer is that Washington\u2019s nonproliferation policy,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Strategika"","block_context":{"text":"Strategika","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/strategika\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5383,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/common-sense\/","url_meta":{"origin":5500,"position":3},"title":"Common Sense","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Who needs \"intelligence\" to know Iran wants nukes? by Raymond Ibrahim Private Papers Much of the current debate surrounding Iran\u2019s nuclear aspirations centers on the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report which \u201cjudge[s] with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.\u201d While such reports tend to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6393,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-crosses-red-line-by-supporting-jihadi-terrorism\/","url_meta":{"origin":5500,"position":4},"title":"Obama Crosses Red Line by Supporting Jihadi Terrorism","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0Jihad Watch By now it should be obvious that whenever the U.S. interferes in another nation\u2019s politics in the name of \u201chuman rights,\u201d that that is only a pretext. 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