Ron Paul's and Iran's bomb

Ron Paul made more news yesterday when he stated that Iran would be justified blocking the straits of Hormuz because our sanctions against them are effectively acts of war. Story here. His position on Iran, and their alleged nuclear weapons program, has been alarming from the start, but this statement kicks it up a notch (does quoting Emeril date me?), and shows Paul's disconnect from reality on this issue. In fact, western sanctions against Iran are not acts of war, they are acts of enforcement of international agreements. Long story short, Chapter VII of the UN Charter gives the UN Security Council the authority to determine the existence of threats to peace. The UN Security Council does this through the IAEA. The IAEA has found Iran to be in violation of mandated nuclear safeguards at least four times since 2006 (Resolutions 1737, 1747, 1803, and 1929), and each time the UN Security Council voted to impose further sanctions. Keep in mind that in several instances significant financial incentives were offered to Iran as an attempt to get them to cease uranium enrichment. In each case they chose to decline. So here we are.

So if sanctions against Iran are an act of war, then the question becomes.... who's waging this war? Well in this case I guess that would be the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China, and a dozen or so other countries who have voted for these various resolutions. This isn't United States unilateralism, this is near-universal agreement that Iran's uranium enrichment program is dangerous, destabilizing, and illegal (By the way, Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), so they agreed to the safeguard provisions that the IAEA enforces, but I digress).

Back to Ron Paul and his position on this whole mess. I suppose it's fair to take a position against projecting military force except in very dire cases. One would hope that we never use force except under the most extreme circumstances. But that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about sanctions. And if you're not going to use military force, sanctions are really the olny serious tool you have left. Ron Paul has taken a position that thumbs America's collective noses at treaties that are meant to guard the safety of all people. It can be argued that not nearly enough is done to enforce the NPT, and the result is the chaotic, dangerous situation the world finds itself in today. But far from wanting to do MORE to promote non-proliferation, Ron Paul wants to throw his hands up in the air and have America "mind our own business" (an exact quote, BTW) presumably to let offensive nuclear technology find fertile soil wherever it may. No war, no sanctions, no nothing.

This kind of militant isolationism is not a viable policy. It will make America, and the world, less-safe.