In an article ambitiously called "How to keep the Bomb from Iran: Preventing the unthinkable," Scott Sagan writes with stunning ignorance in the journal Foreign Affairs:

Governments typically pursue nuclear power for one of three reasons: to protect themselves against an external security threat, to satisfy the parochial interests of domestic actors, or to acquire an important status symbol.

What was that again? According to "expert" Scott Sagan, we're sitting pretty! All we do is give the Mullahs whatever they really want, and the world will be safe and secure from nuclear destruction. Phew!! What a relief!

Mr. Sagan has obviously never heard about imperialist ideology as a supreme motive for genocidal aggression. He clearly has never heard the names Tojo, Hitler, Pol Pot, Mao, Stalin, Lenin, bin Laden, and last but not least,  Khomeini. If Hitler had gotten his hands on the Bomb, as he nearly did, Mr. Sagan apparently feels quite sure that he would have used his nukes only as "an important status symbol." 

If and when the Khomeini cult gets theirs, Mr. Sagan assures us, they will only use their nukes "to protect themselves from an external security threat" ——— by which he must mean the United States.

If Pol Pot had posessed his very own nukes, in Sagan FantasyLand, he would only use them "to satisfy the parochial interests of domestic actors."  Although by the time Pol Pot was done with his killing fields there weren't many "domestic actors" left in Cambodia. So much for that intellectually lazy and self—deluded hypothesis.

Apparently Sagan hasn't read a single word spoken by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is very explicit indeed about his ambitions for a Bomb: erasing Israel is only the first step. Here is just one source Mr. Sagan might easily look up. (Try Google, Mr. Sagan). From the Associated Press of April 5, 2006:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel a "permanent threat" to the Middle East that will "soon" be liberated. He also appeared to again question whether the Holocaust really happened.

"Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation," Ahmadinejad said at the opening of a conference in support of the Palestinians. "The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm."

Ahmadinejad provoked a world outcry in October when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map."

After Israel is finally erased from the world, Ahmadinejad doesn't plan to stop. That's only the start. Dominating the world's oil supply comes next. Armed with nukes and missiles Tehran is in a perfect  position to do it. After that comes controlling the Middle East for Shiite Islam. Then there's exporting the most virulent kind of theocracy to the rest of the world, as called for in the Koran itself.

And finally, the pinnacle of glory in Ahmadinejad's ideology is to bring  the return of the 12th Imam from the bottom of that well he's been hiding in for the last nine centuries. But first, there must be  certain apocalyptic preliminaries, to teach the infidels a lesson they will never forget.

Oh, there's plenty for Ahmadinejad to do that Mr. Sagan just can't imagine.

It's not as if imperialist ideology is exactly a new thing on the world scene, Mr. Sagan. None of the more lunatic conquerors of world history were inspired by your three pedestrian motives. All were determined to dominate the known world ———  for the Aryan Race, or for the Emperor,  for the Communist cause, for the sheer joy of conquest, or to convert the infidel through some flavor of jihadi head—chopping.

Mr. Sagan's understanding of history is like one of those miniscule black holes that are supposed to be wandering around the universe, ready to pop into existence in the most unlikely places ——— in this case in the pages of Foreign Affairs.  This article is just an embarassment to what is supposed to be a serious journal.  Foreign Affairs is the house organ of the fabled CFR, the Council on Foreign Relations, itself the object of conspiracy theories galore. But fans of conspiracies can now sit down with a couple of beers and relax. Stop whispering about your dreaded CFR. Evidently these Foreign Affairs people are far too silly and ignorant to mount any respectable conspiracy.

James Lewis   9 07 06