Centerfield

The fact is, it seems that much of the world is more afraid of the US--or at least are unwilling to give up the financial benefits of selling nuclear material--than they are of an Iranian bomb. It's obviously not all Bush's fault, but IMO, this Administration has done a good job of isolating the US from the international community.

BTW, I think it's sort of amusing that the US keeps putting out these intelligence estimates talking about how Iran and North Korea either have or are moving close to developing weapons. Don't they get it? The rest of the world doesn't believe what the US says. That's one of the reasons that people don't want to cooperate; we have lost credibility with a lot of the world. Who cares what US intelligence says? Didn't they say the same thing on Iraq? Frankly, until Bush starts looking objectively at how we are viewed i nteh rest of the world, it's going to be hard to get any real cooperation. Of course, all of these counties have their own reasons for going their own way, but the way the Administration has bungled everything doesn't help.

I think we are just going to have to get use to the fact that dictators with funny hats and wild eyed fanatics will achieve nuclear weapons. The first bomb was made with 1940's technology. Anyone with a decent machine shop and a local Radioshack can build one. Its only the nuclear fuel that is hard to acquire. Supposedly Saudi Arabia and Egypt also have programs.
Also people need to realizes that the current incarnation of “star wars” is useless against a cruise missile. They fly to low and to fast.

I sense that most developing nations that don't have nukes want them, so that they can become genuine international players. And sure, the nations in conflict with the US seem especially inclined towards wanting them.

But suppose 9/11 and the subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq hadn't happened. Even suppose Al Gore had won. Does anyone really think that N Korea, Pakistan, Iran, and a host of other nations would not be pursuing and developing nukes anyway? That strains credulity, IMO.

These nations would be pursuing the same courses and bitching about American hegemony regardless of who was in the white house, and regardless of virtually any type of serious American foreign policy.We broke open Pandora's box 60 years ago, we can't close it, and everybody wants some. That's just the way it is.

The nuclear chess game has been going on for 6 decades, and it's very far from over. I don't think there's a single effing foreign policy course Bush or any other US President could have chosen in the wake of 9/11 that would have changed the motives and desires of the players on the board.

As always, I take pains to note that I've never liked Bush or supported him as the right guy for the job. But Bush just isn't anywhere near as evil, as stupid, or powerful as his critics claim.

BK,

That's true and I agree Bush is not to blame for countries pursuing nukes. They all have their own reasons for doing so. But his policy has helped to remove any "moral" restraints on these countries. Increasingly, the world sees the US as a bully and is unwilling to listen to us even when we are right. (You can deny that we are bully but that is how much of the world sees us.) There was a time when even the countries that didn't like us had to take into account our wishes because they knew we were the leaders and would have a lot of sway in the international community. That's much less true now. I'm not a big fan of international agreements, such as the NPT, but it seems obvious that nothing useful comes out of simply dismissing them out of hand as this Administration does.