These weapons would also undermine the non-proliferation treaty and the role of the U.N. as an arbiter for stability, a role it has tended to exercise in the breach in any case. By thumbing its nose at the world, Iran can become a regional and arguably a world power capable of advancing its own agenda.
Last, rather than deter an enemy which is the presumption behind evolving State Department logic, the administration will be deterred from actions. It is apparent in the five party talks with North Korea that the U.S. has very little leverage other than acting as a supplicant offering a carrot and yet another carrot to a rogue state with nuclear weapons.
Any way one looks at it, the U.S. would be bargaining from a position of weakness even if the mullahs relying on theological considerations were willing to bargain at all. After all, nuclear weapons represent an insurance policy for the survival of the regime and regional hegemony.
In the case that Iran truly ceased its nuclear weapons program in 2003 as the National Intelligence Estimate report asserts, it probably did not do so because of negotiation, another NIE assertion, but rather because of the American invasion of Iraq in that year. If we triumph in Iraq only to allow Iran to progress towards their goal of regional power unfettered than the entire effort will have been in vain.
Herb London
Herbert London is president of Hudson Institute and professor emeritus of New York University. He is the author of Decade of Denial (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2001).
Be the first to read Herb London's column. Sign up today and receive Townhall.com delivered each morning to your inbox.