July 24, 2025
Former Republican senator and presidential candidate John McCain (1936-2018) would be thrilled to know that the United States bombed Iran's nuclear facilities last month. President Trump claimed that the strikes "completely and totally obliterated" Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities, but this has been questioned.
Although I am opposed to the United States bombing Iran (or any other country), I don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons. But this is not because I hate the government of Iran, hate Islam, hate Muslims, hate the people of Iran, want to weaken the enemies of Israel, or think that Iran is a threat to the United States or Israel.
Don't think that I am being naïve. The Islamic Republic of Iran is an oppressive theocratic state that drastically and harshly intervenes in the economy and society and heavily restricts the liberty and freedom of Iranians. But this is not why I don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons.
I don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons because I don't want any country to have nuclear weapons. As Murray Rothbard concluded: "The use of nuclear or similar weapons, or the threat thereof, is a sin and a crime against humanity for which there can be no justification." This is because nuclear weapons kill people collectively and indiscriminately. They cannot be used for targeted killing on the battlefield. They can only be used for offensive and aggressive purposes. They are "ipso facto engines of indiscriminate mass destruction."
The United States helped develop Iran's civil nuclear program in the 1950s. Iran signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons ( NPT) in 1968. (Israel, like India and Pakistan, has never signed). The supreme leader of Iran issued a fatwa forbidding nuclear weapons. U.S. intelligence reports have consistently confirmed that Iran was not attempting to build or acquire nuclear weapons. The Iranian government maintains that the purpose of its nuclear program is to produce electricity.
After the United States bombed Iran, an Iranian representative went on American television and said Iran has an "inalienable right" to a peaceful nuclear program. He is exactly right. And every county has the same right. But I would go further than that. Iran also has an "inalienable right" to a nuclear weapons program.
The wrong assumption about Iran's nuclear weapons program is that Iran should not be permitted to acquire or develop nuclear weapons.
In addition to the United States, Russia, China, France, Israel, Great Britain, India, Pakistan, and North Korea have nuclear weapons. Who are these countries (mainly the United States and Israel) to say that Iran should not have nuclear weapons? Who are Trump and Netanyahu to say that Iran should not have nuclear weapons? Who are you and I to say that Iran should not have nuclear weapons? Who is anyone to say that country x should or should not have this weapon or that weapon?
The United States has more than 5,000 nuclear warheads that are a threat to the entire planet. Every country in the world - not just Iran - is justified in obtaining nuclear weapons to protect itself against the country that was the first to develop nuclear weapons, the country that has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, and the only country to ever use nuclear weapons - the United States.
Why is it widely accepted that only the United States and a handful of other countries should be allowed to possess nuclear weapons but that Iran-which is surrounded by U.S. military bases and nuclear powers Israel, Russia, India, and Pakistan-should not?
How many Americans who just assume that Iran should not have nuclear weapons could locate Iran on a map unless it was labeled with big letters saying IRAN? How many Americans who think that Iran is a threat to the United States know whether Iran is a Shiite or Sunni Muslim state or what the difference is between the two branches of Islam? How many Americans know that all of the issues with Iran stem from the CIA overthrowing the democratically elected prime minister of Iran in 1953 and restoring to power the autocratic Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi?
I suspect very few.
But regardless of whether Iran's nuclear program is for electricity or for bombs, the United States should mind its own business and not bomb Iran or any other country.