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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/21/opinion/21mathews.html
Iran Crisis Could Lead to a Nuclear-Armed World
(New York Times) Jessica T. Mathews - The idea that "it's too late" to stop Iran's progress toward building nuclear weapons is technologically wrong. "There's nothing we can do about it" ignores a range of options between economic sanctions and going to war. This crisis is only proximately about Iran. More important, it is about the likely consequence that Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt would produce their own bombs and the nonproliferation regime would collapse. What is at stake is not a choice between 9 and 10 nuclear weapons states, but a choice between 9 and 30 or more. If we fail to pursue this effort with unwavering, clear-minded diplomacy, a nuclear-armed world will be the Bush administration's chief legacy, no matter how the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism turn out. The writer is the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.