Things that go bang in the (arabian) night.
This from the Foreign Secretary.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/08/nuclear-nuclearpower:
His scooby-doo side parting clearly sits atop a very big brain. I agree wholeheartedly. But...
AK-47s kill more people than Atom Bombs.
Not one by one perhaps, but definately in total, and probably per dollar spent. You get more bang for your buck with an angry militia armed with weapons so simple children can (and do) use them. Such militae are readily available in countries where lack of resource makes everyone crazy.
They're easier to get. Harder to track. And they crop up in scarier places.
Now, I'm not saying I'm not scared of the mushroom cloud. Nor am I calling for all Kalashnikovs to be scrapped. No, I'm saying the focus is wrong. The point isn't the weapon, its the will of those who use it.
"Yee-haw!" I can hear the NRA already crying: "see, guns don't kill people, people kill people." Which is true, and like most true things fatuous, unhelpful and irrelevant. The point is not what does the killing, but that people are killed. We don't like it. What's the best way to stop it?
Gun control laws in the UK work, International pressure on Iran to push disarmament doesn't.
And its easy to see why. The country has its back up, in front of its own people. Because the people packing nukes are ones telling it not to develop them.
Miliband himself notes that the USA hasn't yet ratified the Test ban treaty. This both makes the US look hypocritical, and points to a worrying failing in the UK's non-prolif policy. Vis, if we can't get our closest ally onside, what chance Iran?
So what's the answer? I don't know, but there's something I'd like us to try...
Talk to them.
Imagine that Iran's a drunk man with a broken bottle on a glasgow night out.* Are your chances of getting him to drop the glass better if:
a) you're the stranger waving a bar stool at him and threatening him. Or
b)if you're the embarrased mate with your hand on his arm, telling him its not worth it.
Some drunks will respond to this treatment, others, like the U.S. will need a little more persuading, but its worth a go. And for anyone who says that we can't make friends with Iran, well, we were at war with Germany and Japan fifty years ago. And egypt not long after that.
While we're at it, we should try to do something about all the people who want to kill each other in Africa and the Middle east as well.
You know what? I've changed my mind:
Guns do kill people. So do Atom bombs. But poverty, pride and politics are way out in front.
*(The bottle is the bomb, he's drunk because drunks are agressive, unstable and a danger to those close to them. Which is basically our problem with Iran, and I hate to say it, America.)