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Iran and North Korea Policies Without Arrogant or Useless Threats
by Ava Kar*

The only sensible and truly courageous thing for the U.S. to do now vis a vis Iran, North Korea and the rest of the world is, unilaterally, to activate the golden rule in international diplomacy, with Iran and North Korea for a start, and to see what happens. “Do to others what you would like them to do to you”. Consider how the golden rule can work as realpolitik:

America wants Iran and North Korea to respect its authority and to stop threatening it with potential nuclear weapons. OK: America could – and must - respond by initiating its own nuclear disarmament, with or without Israel for a start, and respect Iran's and North Korea’s undeniable right to learn all it can about nuclear technology, just as America, and Israel, and all the other 65 countries with nuclear weapons have had that right.

Everyone understands that nuclear disarmament by anybody has to be a process, and that it depends on evidence. It presents no real danger to anyone, including America or Israel, for the USA to announce that it intends to start on such a process, and to back that up with transparent preparations. Everyone knows that if, during the nukedis process, any nation saw the USA (or Israel) as weak and foolish and ripe for attack, the USA (or Israel) could still pulverize it and all its citizens with a touch of a button. It will take some time to dismantle even half of the US arsenal aimed at all, and know what to do with the waste. And it may take a while for Israel to get on the nukedis wagon.

As the huge U.S. nuclear arsenal transparently diminished, the sustained shock of pleased surprise and enthusiasm that such an initiative is bound to generate among many will keep reverberating everywhere. As other nations follow suit (they will – mimetic contagion), there will be ample opportunities to reassess the world’s nuclear weaponry situation, whether in the Middle East, in Asia, or elsewhere. There will be relief and gratitude from everyone except, perhaps, the manufacturers and the deployers -- their factories and facilities will have to be converted to.... to what? Here's where moral grassroots and higher-level creativity is begging to be allowed to think and to work toward more civilized, sustainably cooperative life on Earth.

As Department of Peace advocates say: “One Dream Can Change Everything”. A dream has to be activated. Let arrangements begin for America's own gradual nuclear disarmament (nukedis) as the policy option vis a vis Iran and North Korea. It is the only sanely secure and practicable option. Let an as brief as possible time frame be given to align IAEA Inspections and to work out nukedis details. As the process developed, any nation's inspectors would need to be allowed, through the IAEA and its well-established expertise in the area, to inspect America's progress in nukedis, and, of course, vice versa as other nations join in to help achieve that worldwide goal.

Americans, you are in a perfect position to lead the world in nuclear disarmament by unilaterally initiating that long-desired process for the benefit of the whole world. Why this doesn’t occur to the American leadership is beyond me. Is it a lack of courage? Is it contempt for the golden rule? Is it just plain obsessive compulsion to repeating war and threats of more war, over and over and over again – even when it makes things worse for all sides and for the earth we live on?

International trust can begin to be restored ONLY if the nukedis process is initiated by the United States - along with Israel, which depends on it, and can do no other but go along. Were Israel to decide to use its nuclear weapons independently, that would probably spell disaster for Jews all over the world, regardless of whether the USA leaped or not to the defense.

Were the golden rule’s humanitarian vision applied by the U.S. with self-respect and decisiveness vis a vis Iran and North Korea -- in effect vis a vis all other nations with mimetic nuclear weapons or threats -- the result would not only gradually help transform the “Ugly American” image back into "America the Beautiful", but also help Israel and its neighbours develop international relationships with more peace and justice. Even terrorists, whatever their cause, don’t want all their families or friends to be nuked.

The golden rule needs to be given a chance as realpolitik. It would take a lot of courage, ego restraint, and wise planning on both sides of a dispute. May it be used to restore a healthy measure of trust and security among all nations. When the sacrifice of soldiers and untold numbers of innocent civilians leads to breaking mankind’s ever repeating round of “bombs and bombast”, that is when the soldiers’ and civilians’ lives will not have been in vain. Sincerely yours, Ava Kar

“If you believe that a readiness to live together – to co-exist – is tantamount to moral surrender, then you must believe that to be virtuous we should all be committed to endless violence over differences.” Nicholas P. Vakar (my father, d.1971).

PLEASE PLEASE HELP GET THIS GOLDEN RULE OUT INTO PUBLIC DIALOGUE. Every human heart whether secular or religious, in whatever culture, has room to seriously, faithfully, activate the golden rule into national and international political life, which is so personal.

* Ava Kar, B.C. Canada, October 2006. I owe the U.S. my life (out of Europe to the U.S. for 35 years, now in Canada for 31) and I want awfully to see the people live a more sanely secure life, not only in the States, but everywhere. There are many world citizens who owe their lives to Americans, and who can’t bear to see the U.S. in roles destructive to so many lives, the vast majority of whom are innocents, when that is not necessary or fairly justifiable. AVAKAR