Monday, December 11, 2006

Give 'Em All Nukes

That's basically Jules Crittenden's position, judging from this post on his blog.

The Gulf Arabs want nukes. Why is this good news? Nuclear-armed Persian Shiites and Sunni Arabs can stare at each other across the Gulf, a lot like the Indians and Paks stare at each other across the Line of Control. Nuclear-armed Israelis will stare at all of them.

Fly in the ointment: Iraq remains the no mans land. Guerrilla war and terrorism will continue throughout the region, the only option when the alternative is Armageddon. But with the playing field leveled, no fear that the Iranians will become the dominant power in the region.

I'll admit that this "Screw it, let 'em deal with it" attitude has a certain appeal, especially in light of the world's whiny-ass attitude towards the United States any time we do (or don't do) anything in the world.

Let's face it. We're damned if we do and damned if we don't. Let's do a little history check to prove the point:
In the 1990s:
--We were condemned for not getting rid of Saddam at the end of the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
--We were condemned for not preventing Saddam gassing the Kurds.
--We were condemned for the mess in Somalia both before and after we were there.
--We were condemned for not stopping Serbian aggression, and then were condemned for not doing enough to prevent Serbian aggression.
--We were condemned for not preventing or stopping the genocide in Rwanda.

Since 2000:
--We've been condemned for not solving the Israeli/Palestinian problem.
--We've been condemned for not solving the Sudan genocide.
--We've been condemned for not giving enough for tsunami relief.
--We've been condemned for Hurricane Katrina.
--We've been condemned for instability in the Middle East.
--We've been condemned for taking out Saddam.

In short, regardless of what actions we take (or don't take), the U.S. will be blamed. So, maybe Crittenden has a point. If all the Middle East has nukes, then they'll have to deal with it. As a bonus, none of them has missiles which will reach U.S. shores, so, using peacenik logic, it doesn't affect us. Right?