As of this moment no one knows for sure if the Iranian leadership really intends to build a nuclear weapon. What we do know is that Israel and the US are leading a well-orchestrated fight against Iran's nuclear development program. They have roped in some of their friends in Western Europe--mainly Britain and France--to support their own machinations in that regard by collectively imposing sanctions of all types against the leaders and citizens of Iran. It must be noted outright that all of the members of this "coalition of the willing" are themselves armed to the hilt with nuclear weapons and long-range missiles that can deliver those weapons of mass destruction anywhere on earth. Do they have any moral right to squeeze Iran to prevent it from developing and deploying similar weapons that they themselves keep developing and deploying with impunity, and with complete disregard for majority world-opinion that these weapons should be eliminated all together?
There are no permanent friends when it comes to international relations, only convenient bed-fellows, as a wise sage once said. The one you consider as a friend during the night can easily turn into a deadly enemy in the morning. So, let us look at Iran's genuine fears and security concerns vis-a-vis the so-called "civilized" and "peaceful" nations of Israel, the US and some other counties in Asia and Europe.
Iran shares a long and highly porous border with Afghanistan and Pakistan. There are remotely-controlled American "drones" in those countries killing the alleged Taliban leaders and fighters, and many more civilians besides. Who knows if the Americans have not stationed some drones, nukes and missiles in their many military bases in those countries to take care of Iran if and when the need arises? One thing we know for sure is that there are American ships and submarines floating everywhere around the world with nuclear weapons and missiles: cruise missiles being just a lesser category of the weapons of mass destruction that have already been used in Sudan and Afghanistan, among other places.
Pakistan is rapidly becoming a failed state with an arsenal of nuclear weapons. What happens if there is a regime change in the country? Will the new Pakistani rulers and their intelligence operators in the ISI and other spy agencies love Iran or nuke it when they feel like it?
Beyond Pakistan is India, another "peaceful" country with nuclear weapons as well as missiles that can deliver them over long distances: Iran is just next door really. Then there is China with its own atom and hydrogen bombs that can rein down on Iran any day if the Chinese communist leaders so decide. Let us also not forget North Korea with its arsenal of nukes and missiles. And, who is to say if there are not American nuclear weapons and missiles stationed in South Korea? The same goes for Japan even though the Americans and the Japanese political leaders and militaries deny this vehemently. For that matter, does Taiwan also host some nuclear weapons just in case China decided to take over the island some day as its leaders have repeatedly stated?
There is Russia also with its huge arsenal of nuclear weapons and missiles, with no love lost for its own Muslim population. And, it is still developing new nuclear weapons to match the stock-piles the US and her friends currently have and are still developing.
Finally, there is Israel. We all know, or should know by now, about its growing stock-pile of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles that can strike Iran at any time. Israelis are also alleged to be killing Iranian nuclear scientist over the last few years in Teheran and elsewhere against all norms of human rights and diplomacy. Israel is also a country that has been repeatedly imprisoning and allegedly torturing, at least psychologically, one of its own citizens, Mordechai Vannunu, since 1986 when he first revealed some details about Israel's nuclear weapons program to the international community. Are we really supposed to believe that the Israelis leaders are any saner or less ominous than the leaders of Iran. Can we be sure?
So let us seriously ponder if the leaders of Iran are crazy to be paranoid about the potential dangers they face from all the nuclear-crazies that surround them and can annihilate them from near or far at short notice? They must also be looking at how no established nuclear power in the world today has ever been really punished for developing and deploying these ominous weapons of mass destruction: India, Israel, North Korea and Pakistan are just the latest examples of this crazy state of affairs. If the leaders of the US, Britain, China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, and Russia can be trusted with managing their nuclear weapons in any kind of an enlightened way, there is no reason whatsoever not to extend the same courtesy to the much-maligned Iranian leaders.
Nothing short of an immediate global movement for Destroying All Nuclear Weapons Now (DAWN) can save us. That is the only sane choice we have in this nuclear-crazy world of ours. Iran is just the latest example of our collective madness.