Martin Amis

THIS WEEK On non-proliferation, the position of the West is currently a non-starter. Martin Amis

We asked author Martin Amis for his Take Of The Week.

As the other two members of the Axis Of Evil start tooling themselves up with nuclear weapons, the general feeling seems to be that North Korea is the more dangerous case.

But you could argue that Messianism is more dangerous than mere insanity.

North Korea is a nation state - that's all it is, whereas Iran feels itself to be the leader of Shia Islam.

Supposed to feel bloody awful

And Rafsanjani, one of its more pragmatic leaders, has said that an exchange with Israel would make Israel disappear, while Shia Islam could absorb any retaliation.

We're all supposed to feel bloody awful about having helped Iraq scrape a draw with Iran in their war in the 1980s, but in fact a revolutionary and rampant Iran would have been a much more destabilising presence.

Iran is our natural enemy, and we have an embarrassment of casus belli with Iran and very little legitimacy in Iraq.

Non-starter

But invasion is not the way to enforce non-proliferation. We have to have a new idea.

On non-proliferation, the position of the West is currently a non-starter.

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You cannot justify the two-tier system any more than you can make a moral case for apartheid.

Asking the moon to save the earth

What the West needs to do is to start heading towards a zero option and divesting itself of these useless status symbols.

It will need another revolution in consciousness, perhaps and it's asking the moon - but that's not a bad price to pay for saving the earth.

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