OPINION:
The editorial “Getting ready for the Islamic bomb” (Opinion, Thursday) accurately points out the futility of making statements that are not supported by firm action. The West has been fully aware of the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran for close to a decade. But apart from insisting that their ambitions cannot be allowed to be realized, no action has been taken to prevent the inevitable.
No one can claim that this gathering storm could not be anticipated. In a September 2003 commentary piece published in Defense News, we noted: “We must soon make choices on the future of our nuclear policy and evaluate how we will live in a world where proliferation has become an established fact.”
In December 2006, we were more specific: “North Korea claims to have several nuclear weapons and have conducted a nuclear test. Iran has recently stated that more centrifuges for the enrichment of uranium are being brought on line and refuse to stop their work. So called lines in the sand have been drawn by the West warning the nations of dire reactions if their nuclear development continued, without any noticeable effect.”
The danger, as the editorial correctly points out, is that while other nations dither, Israel may decide it has no alternative other than to take military action to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear warheads. Such an attack would have very significant consequences.
It is time our government and other world leaders faced the real facts of life. They have not taken the necessary action to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons and have wasted several years that could have been used to identify policies that would enable us to restrain these now-emboldened hostile countries. If this is not the most important threat to our security, it is very close.
STANLEY ORMAN
Rockville
EUGENE FOX
Plano, Texas
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