The Nuclear Club - Middle Eastern Chapter

I was doing some map reading this morning and looking at the Middle East, the current site of trouble in the world and quite obviously one the most dangerous places when it comes to nuclear weapons. I looked at the nations that have nuclear arms and at the relative distances between those nations. Looking at a map seems to put it all in perspective and it is scary! So why am I posting this? Just mental gymnastics. Keeping my mind exercised...because there isn't much to be done about any of it.

Israel: Some heavy handed rhetoric is coming from Israel these days as Sharon meets with Bush in Texas. Mr. Sharon is urging Bush to put more pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear research. This is coming from the head of a nation that has consistently refused to acknowledge its own nuclear capabilities, despite pressure from the entire world community. Would they be willing to halt their own research? And at the same time, Mr. Sharon is facing growing hostility from the Israeli’s that are living (illegally) in the West Bank, as well as from the right-wing of the government. Mr. Sharon was once a general, but he has become a politician and so he will do anything to stay in power, even if it means an about-face from his previous moderate views regarding a Palestinian state.

Pakistan: This nation has had nuclear weapons for quite awhile now and is probably more dangerous than Iran, where we don’t think they have weapon capability, yet?.? Pakistan shares a border with Iran and has a history of selling nuclear secrets in an effort to allow all Muslim nations to have power to use against Israel. The government of Pakistan is led by one man, a military dictator, and that is most alarming, as we should know from experience that all dictators are targets for the opposition. This dictator has survived one (Maybe more?) assassination attempt. In this case the opposition is right-wing, ultra-nationalists that would love to start a holy war.

Iran: This is the nation that we know very little about. There are rumours galore. Yet the unnamed “U.S. Officials” say that it will be several years from now before Iran has weapons capability. And we know from experience just how reliable “U.S. Officials” are. From what I have read, we haven’t had the ability to obtain reliable intelligence in this country for years.