Sanctions Won't Stop Iran

Few would have thought that the MAD world of Mutually Assured Destruction might seem like an era of sanity in retrospect. The period that created Dr. Strangelove restricted its nuclear club to paragons of predictability compared to today’s players, actual and prospective. To start with the obvious, if it’s acceptable for North Korea to have nuclear weapons (to say nothing of Pakistan, spawning ground and frequent shelter of the Taliban) how can the world deny nukes to any country? Still, most nations or governments agree that nuclear capability for theocratic Iran is so dangerous as to be resisted even in a world that acquiesces in such capability for the Kim family of Pyongyang. This is why, from Europe to the Far East, many nations participate in economic sanctions against the Tehran regime. They do so partly as a symbolic gesture of disapproval of the nuclear mullahs, and partly as a practical measure to induce a change of policy.