Oh The Hypocrisy Of It All

So it now appears that Iran has been building a second nuclear enrichment plant which appears to have upset a broad range of countries. Those who have piped up with complaints include the UK, US, France, Israel. In fact our very own Miliband has not ruled out military action. That's very good of him. The UK may have the second furthest 'military reach' but we have neither the manpower nor the political will to do so.

This whole issue of nuclear power and nuclear weapons seems to bring out the imperialist in the Western nations who themselves have both nuclear power and nuclear weapons. We seem, and I say 'we' as we are a democracy, we seem to consider ourselves to have some innate right to decide upon who else joins the cosy nuclear club and feel we have the right to interfere in other countries sovereign policies.

We rant against the Iranians for their supposed secrecy yet across the UK and US territories I wouldn't be surprised it if there were 'secret' nuclear facilities that the IAEA or the national electorate know nothing about.

We complain of the threat that comes from a newly emerging nuclear power yet retain enough nuclear weaponry ourselves to end civilisation. So which rogue state was it that has exploded not one but two atomic weapons over the heads of civilians killing hundreds of thousands? Which countries have shown the seriousness of the situation when nuclear power goes wrong? Not Iran for sure.

And the hypocrisy reaches new heights in the condemnation of Iran for it's steps along the nuclear path whilst ignoring the issues of Israel's nuclear arsenal and it's reported environmental issues with the ageing Dimona nuclear facility.

I think  if we put our money where our mouth is and did away with all our weapons of mass destruction before we pontificated about nuclear proliferation then we would be in a much better position, both for us and the rest of mankind.

My faith in humanity rests not with the 'civilised' Western neoliberal states but with the countries small and poor, with the countries that have suffered at the imposition of our imperialism, with the countries that have suffered under Western military attack. The fact that any nation in the world still wishes to retain civil relations with us given our track record is a miracle.