[ RadSafe ] Re: Sarkozy pushes nuclear energy in Mideast

[Peter Bossew]

Syd,
exactly, also my case.

We - in this case I can speak for all Europeans (except a few residual 
nazis) - are infinitely grateful that the USA did "meddle", and did not 
"mind their own business". Probably millions more would have been 
murdered, if the USA would not have contributed so much to destroying 
the nazi regime, and subsequently to building democratic societies.


Syd H. Levine wrote:
>
> [Steven Dapra:]                 To answer Syd's question, yes the US 
> was meddling, and yes we
> should have minded our own business.
>
> [Syd Levine:]  A number of my relatives are dead as a result of that 
> unfortunate bit of history, and a lot more would be dead if the US had 
> not meddled when it did. It is difficult to make an argument that 
> there is never a moral calamity that justifies a bit of meddling.
>

[Steven Dapra:]      Historians universally agree that the Versailles 
Treaty set the stage for WWII.

This is true.

[Gary Isenhower:]    Iran is confident that once they possess just a few 
nuclear weapons, no one
will dare to prevent them from making more.

I am afraid this is a realistic assessment...
On the other hand, pragmatically, sanctions simply were not effective, 
apparently they are even counter-productive, and other means are 
necessary to contain Iran's military nuclear ambitions; or to be more 
accurate, the ambitions of some people or groups in Iran. Not that I 
knew which means are more effective... they have to be developed. Some 
may call it naive, but I think integrating Iran - with all disdain for 
their president's (and the group he represents) positions towards 
Israel, in particular - may be more efficient, in the same time drying 
out the swamp on which those resentments and nazoid ideology flourish. 
One should not forget that Iran has a large potential of highly 
educated, civilized and liberally minded people, who are currently de 
facto silenced and without political influence, because, like always and 
everywhere if a society feels being under pressure or even threat from 
outside, people gather around nationalists and obscurantists. (As S. 
Dapra correctly said, the Versailles Treaty which was seen as unfair and 
threatening by many Germans, was an important factor for the rise of the 
nazis.) I would dare to hypothesize that Iran's current regime - which 
is in no way particularly successful in resolving social and economic 
problems - actually needs the outside pressure to keep power. If this 
hypothesis is correct, with its current strategy the West actually helps 
the regime staying in power and posing a threat to others and (not to 
forget) a large part of Iran's own population.

More technically, U enrichment, and even fuel reprocessing for 
recovering Pu are not illegal under international law as long as the 
rules of the NPT are observed. It is therefore difficult to explain to 
Iran, why - as long as they observe the rules - they should not be 
allowed to perform these activities. If the international community 
feels that the rules are not sufficient to prevent a malevolent regime 
from building nuclear weapons, then they must be changed and improved, 
of course by fair and transparent negotiations (i.e. certainly not based 
on political resentments, see the unfortunate Versailles example).

Peter Bossew



-----------------------------------------------------
Peter Bossew 

European Commission (EC) 
Joint Research Centre (JRC) 
Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES) 

TP 441, Via Fermi 1 
21020 Ispra (VA) 
ITALY 
  
Tel. +39 0332 78 9109 
Fax. +39 0332 78 5466 
Email: peter.bossew at jrc.it 

WWW: http://rem.jrc.cec.eu.int 
  
"The views expressed are purely those of the writer and may not in any
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