A Double Standard

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faced off at the UN Conference on Monday over the subject of nuclear proliferation. Clinton began, as you would expect, by accusing Iran of evading nuclear safeguard obligations and by calling on Iran to "fulfill our international obligations and work toward the goal of a safer world" (CNN.com). Ahmadinejad countered by denying allegations that Iran's nuclear program is focused on creating nuclear weapons and accusing the United States of promoting an "international system that... favored the West and nuclear weapon states while denying states like his the benefits of nuclear energy" (CNN.com). Ahmadinejad went on to argue that the U.S. held a double standard by denying states like Iran the right to hold nuclear weapons, while at the same time Israel continues to receive U.S. support despite their own undeclared nuclear stockpile. While the thought of Ahmadinejad getting his hands on a nuclear bomb does keeps me up at night, I can't help but feel that in some respect he is right. It is incredibly hypocritical of the U.S. to try and regulate how other countries develop their own nuclear power, while we are not only the world's largest distributor of commercial nuclear energy, but we are also currently sitting on a stockpile of over 5,000 nuclear missiles. This seems to be just another example of America policing the world and trying to push forward our own agenda. On that note, as a U.S. citizen, I am much more comfortable knowing that the U.S. will do whatever it can to stop countries like Iran and North Korea from attaining nuclear weapons. At the same time I can take advantage of the 19.6% of our total electricity consumption that is provided by nuclear energy.