Nuclear Hypocrisy: America as the World's Serial Killer

Common Dreams - On Sunday, February 14th, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton-speaking at the US-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar-lambasted Iran for its continual development of its nuclear power program. Clinton accused Iran of "consistently (failing) to live up to its responsibilities." According to Clinton "It has refused to demonstrate to the international community that its nuclear program is entirely peaceful." The evidence sighted by Clinton of Iran's callousness toward international laws and the United Nations system is Iran's own action. The only reason Iran would establish a nuclear energy program, it is claimed, is to eventually use it to develop weapons and attack other nations. Therefore, any development of nuclear energy is ipso de facto a threat to security and assault on world peace.

The standard that the Obama administration has set for Iran does make some sense. The cost in producing nuclear energy--in the terms of its maintenance, its safety, and in dealing with waste-is so grand that it can't succeed without being insured and supported by states; there is no additional benefit to nuclear power unless it provides an avenue, or at the minimum the threat of, to one day be weaponized. Also, today nuclear energy is monopolized by the use uranium. Thorium, an alternative use of nuclear energy which is cleaner, safer, found in more abundance in nature, and cannot be easily weaponized, is not used as an energy source. If Iran-along with any other state-was serious about developing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes they would invest in thorium reactors rather than uranium. And if they were really serious about developing energy for peaceful purpose, they would invest in clean renewable sources that can't buttress a weapons industry and don't involve scarce resources. Read more.