Today seems to have been a full moon day in terms of current events. "Luna"-tic events occurred. Here is the third of five vignettes.
The world is a-flutter because Iran not only turned out to have nuclear facilities it had denied having, but yesterday test-fired some missiles. Should we be surprised that other countries seek the security (and indeed the prestige) of going nuclear, especially when it rattles their mortal enemies and brings such international attention? I'm certainly in favor of nuclear nonproliferation generally because, after all, this is an area where a slight miscalculation could blow away a significant portion of mankind. The more such weapons, and the more different governments that have them, obviously, the greater the risk of some mistake (Second Amendment buffs please take note). Ultimately the answer to the nuclear arms race lies in diplomacy that seeks to reduce overall levels, including our own. That's the policy of this administration and previous ones.
On the other hand, to be fair, it's not lost on North Korea or Iran that we seem to get more nervous about their nuclear programs than we do about our friends'. We fear Ahmadinejad is a dangerous nut case, but we should recognize there were people around the world who figured George W. Bush for a dangerous nut case too. It's just that Bush was our nut case.
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