The rate of homelessness in America is an estimated 3.5 million people.
The number of unemployed people hovers around 15 million. The number of people infected with HIV/AIDS is staggering, and citizen faith in Washington is perilously low.
How incredibly fortuitous for us, then, that our great and ever-observant government decides to spend so much of its time and resources on the habits of a country some 7,200 miles away.
The saga of Iran’s gradual and defiant push for nuclear capability and the West’s resistance to it has dominated news headlines the past couple of years. The Iranians have pushed for the ability to possess and enrich uranium, which they have maintained is for peaceful purposes.
The West, led in large part by the U.S., has maintained that this claim is patently false and that the Iranians are in fact attempting to develop nuclear weapons and join a “club” that includes Russia, Great Britain, China, America, India, Pakistan, France, Israel and North Korea.
Then there are the fundamentally stupid and decidedly unhelpful comments of Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has on several occasions indicated his passionate desire for Israel to be “wiped off the map.” He has also labeled the Holocaust a “myth” and “lie” and railed against everything from capitalism to baby lambs, cotton candy and rainbows.
Clearly he does not employ the most finely-chiseled set of diplomatic and political skills, but while he’s attending next week’s class on “tact,” let us ask ourselves this important question: Is it America’s job to police the rest of the world and tell other countries what they can and can’t do?
Many would say that a nation’s sovereignty and right to pursue its own path in such matters should not be interfered with, just as the nine countries listed above were able to pursue, obtain and build up their own programs. Others would argue that this philosophy of isolationist thinking and “worrying about yourself” is precisely why the U.S. took so long to get involved with World War II; the U.S. needs to operate from a position of moral high ground and “do the right thing.”
That is wrong.
Ahmadinejad’s goofy rhetoric and harmful assertions aside, Iran has every right to, as a sovereign nation, pursue a program that would put them on equal footing with other countries at the “big boys’ table” of nuclear power. The fact that the West doesn’t “like” Iran, or is pretty sure of what Iran “might do” down the road, is not sufficient reason to meddle in their affairs.
I’m quite positive that when countries like Russia, America and Pakistan were first developing nuclear technology, more than a few eyebrows were raised around the globe as to these nations’ future intent with this capability.
Iran’s mistake from the beginning has been not just calling a horse a horse and admitting its intentions. While it may indeed be procuring nuclear technology for purposes relating to fuel and energy, etc., Iran should have been very clear and upfront about its desire to have nuclear warheads as a deterrent against attack just like every other nation that owns them.
“Yes, we’re doing this for the exact same reasons all of you guys did. So what’s your argument against that again?”
The bottom line is it’s not up to us to tell other countries what’s best for them, and the ultimate question would-be meddling countries need to ask themselves is this: Would we be OK with France, or Russia or Bolivia telling us what to do and how best to run our country?
Wait ... if they can tell us how to have less people sick and more people sheltered and working, we may be on to something here.
Reach John at jbarret1@asu.edu.
