QandO

June 14, 2004

Iran's Nukes
Posted by Dale Franks

On of the interesting themes in the op/ed world today is the worrying about the Iranians. Oh, sure, here in the US, we've worried about the Iranians for years. But, finally, other people are starting to get worried, too. Today, The Telegraph, and the Wall Street Journal are engaging in a bit of grumbling about the worldwide indifference to Iran becoming a nuclear state, and MSNBC's Fareed Zakaria makes reference to it in his column on non-proliferation in general.

The UN, of course, as they usually do in all other things, are proving that trusting them with problems of this magnitude is futile. Oh, sure, the UN can work overtime like gangbusters when there's ready cash to be made swapping oil export licenses for hefty kickbacks. As soon as they get involved in something that matters, though, the UN turns into the Keystone Cops. As the Journal puts it:

IAEA member states have been going through the motions required by their inspection process. But when they meet today in Vienna the consuming issue will be whether to "deplore" Iran's deceptions or note them with "serious concern." The Iranians are protesting that they consider even those words as all but a casus belli, but they are reported to be privately pleased as punch that the IAEA will yet again fail to refer them to the U.N. Security Council for sanction.

No surprise here. That's where multilateralism almost always leads. Nobody wants to offend anybody. Everybody gets an equal right to be heard. This is precisely the kind of thinking that puts Libya in charge of the UN Human Rights Commission, simply because, it's, you know, their turn.

So, what you end up with is a) a lot of hand-wringing and judicious head-nodding in the corridors of the UN as they discuss the "serious problem" of Iran's nukes (and discuss, and discuss, and discuss...), and b) a nuclear-armed Iran, at which time, the discussion becomes pointless, and the UN moves on to other serious problems to discuss.

This is much the same thing the UN did when North Korea got its nuclear weapons. All the sudden, the UN thinks the NoKos are an American problem, requiring bilateral talks and all that. Look for Iran to become an American problem, too.

Or, an Israeli problem.

Why anyone thinks the UN has the slightest legitimacy or power, beyond that which we expressly wish it to have, is utterly beyond me.

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