To the Editor:
It was appalling to see Alan J. Kuperman’s recommendation that the United States bomb Iranian nuclear facilities because Iran has refused to agree to the terms proposed by the International Atomic Energy Agency for processing nuclear fuel abroad.
Mr. Kuperman’s proposal, if carried out, would be likely to kill a large number of Iranian civilians, unite most Middle East nations against the United States, destroy the rapidly growing dissident movement in Iran, end any Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, end allied support of American efforts in Afghanistan and encourage Iran to resume and accelerate a nuclear weapon program that most experts believe was suspended six years ago. That is too high a price to pay.
The better solution would be a Middle East nuclear-free zone, but that would require that Israel acknowledge and then destroy its own secretly developed nuclear arsenal, currently the only nuclear threat in the region.
Thomas A. Halsted
Gloucester, Mass., Dec. 24, 2009
The writer is former executive director of the Arms Control Association.
Note from KBJ: Is there no morally relevant difference between Israel and Iran? I don't recall anyone in Israel vowing to wipe Iran off the map. Do you?
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 