A more dangerous world

The price of oil is soaring again, hitting US$70 a barrel, no thanks to events in Iran. Iran has very smugly announced success in producing Uranium and they are not going to bother about International community urging them, on pain of un-specified sanctions, to abandon their nuclear programme. Compared to North Korea, this threat seems more real. The world is now a much more dangerous place to live in today. From the looks of things, it will not get any better. Iranian youths are primed to commit suicide bombings (using conventional bombs as a start, I suppose) on enemies of Iran and Palestine and Islam and who knows what else.

To these Iranians, the principle of MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction), which has held back the old USSR and USA from ever using their nuclear arsenal for over 60 years, means exactly that - real MADness. Post 911, Iran doesn't seem to want to understand the contradiction in possessing nuclear weapons. Neither do its leaders, who, I am sure, are all too ready to drop a couple of nuclear bombs on middle-eastern and western soil, come what may, to make their point that they can no longer be bullied. Western soil also includes Australia and Japan, erstwhile friends and allies of the US. So the threat is felt worldwide.

It is at this time that moderate Muslim nations (through the OIC?) must band together to get Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions. It alone, among the world community, has the leverage to do so. My worry is that these nations are secretly happy that one of their members now has nuclear capabilities, so they will not do anything at all to rock the Iranian nuclear boat. Perhaps they think that one day, through their brethren, they too can possess nuclear weapons that will enable them to force others to kowtow to their demands, whatever these may be. The frightening things is that Muslim countries are not all agreed among themselves, which the Iraq-Iran conflict more than 10 years ago has demonstrated and the conflict between Shiite and Shia Muslim sects have shown today in Iraq.

May God help us.