By Mike Matejka
The final show down is approaching over the nuclear deal with Iran, which the Obama Administration has negotiated. Republicans and some Democrats are opposing this. The basic mantra seems to be, “we can’t trust the Iranians.”
Perhaps we should all flash back 52 years ago, when the first nuclear treaties were being negotiated with the Soviets. In 1963 the Partial Test Ban Treaty was negotiated, followed in 1968 by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Pact. Over the next twenty years we saw the SALT, or Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and other attempts to limit nuclear proliferation.
If we were tuning to WJBC 52 years ago, there would be divergent voices on negotiating with the Soviets. I’m sure we could find a quote from someone saying, “We can’t trust the Soviets.”
I still don’t know if we can trust the Soviets, but through negotiations and treaties, we’ve been able to reduce the number of warheads and take the edge off our nuclear fears. 70 years ago last month, the first atomic weapons were used against the Japanese in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Thankfully, we’ve gone 70 years without another bomb dropped in an aggressive action.
So can we trust the Iranians? You cannot trust someone if you don’t have a relationship. Currently, we don’t even have an embassy in Iran. Though I did some internet searching and found that we do have a virtual embassy for Iran.
The nuclear treaty with Iran is imperfect. Every treaty is going to be imperfect. The benefit in this treaty is that it has started the dance. By signing a treaty with the Iranians, we are at least recognizing their legitimacy as a nation. It opens the door to hopefully other relationships that can gradually bring a more normal relationship.
The big fear is that Iran is going to give a nuclear weapon to a terrorist. That’s a legitimate fear. However, if I was going to be worrying about a terrorist getting a bomb, I would worry more about Iran’s neighbor Pakistan, a supposed U.S. ally. Pakistan has nuclear weapons. Pakistan is where Osama Bid Liden hid and when U.S. forces took him out, we supposedly did not tell our ally, Pakistan, for fear that Bid Laden would learn his time was up.
Can we deter a suitcase bomber? Not through conventional treaties or mutually assured destruction, as identifying a suitcase bomber and their origin can be very difficult. That will take security intelligence and incredible spy craft to catch that person.
In the meantime, we can at least get our foot in the door with Iran and start the dance of diplomacy. They trust us as much as we trust them. But hopefully some mutual recognition can slow the spread of nuclear weapons, something every nation should endorse.
Mike Matejka is the Governmental Affairs director for the Great Plains Laborers District Council, covering 11,000 union Laborers in northern Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. He lives in Bloomington with his wife and daughter and their two dogs. He served on the Bloomington City Council for 18 years, is a past president of the McLean County Historical Society and Vice-President of the Illinois Labor History Society.
The opinions expressed within WJBC’s Forum are solely those of the Forum’s author, and are not necessarily those of WJBC or Cumulus Media, Inc.
