A great film to watch:

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
imdb.com/title/tt0057012/

"General "Buck" Turgidson: Mr. President, about, uh, 35 minutes ago, General Jack Ripper, the commanding general of, uh, Burpelson Air Force Base, issued an order to the 34 B-52's of his Wing, which were airborne at the time as part of a special exercise we were holding called Operation Drop-Kick. Now, it appears that the order called for the planes to, uh, attack their targets inside Russia. The, uh, planes are fully armed with nuclear weapons with an average load of, um, 40 megatons each. Now, the central display of Russia will indicate the position of the planes. The triangles are their primary targets; the squares are their secondary targets. The aircraft will begin penetrating Russian radar cover within, uh, 25 minutes.

President Merkin Muffley: General Turgidson, I find this very difficult to understand. I was under the impression that I was the only one in authority to order the use of nuclear weapons.

General "Buck" Turgidson: That's right, sir, you are the only person authorized to do so. And although I, uh, hate to judge before all the facts are in, it's beginning to look like, uh, General Ripper exceeded his authority. "

I love that movie...

"Gentleman, you can't fight in here, this is the War Room!"

"or, failing that, Israeli planes.” (I always wondered, what is the rationale for allowing some countries to have nuclear weapons, and others not?)"

Just because some countries are democracies and some others are just terrorist governements...

Do you seriously fail to understand why a country like Israel should be allowed to have nuclear weapons, and Iran shouldn't?
Countries that make explicit threats towards other countries (such as "Israel should be wiped off map" , see guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,1 ...),
and are controlled by religious, un-democratic governments, are dangerous to world peace. Countries that hold nuclear weapons for the sole purpose of self-defense should be allowed to do so.

My point is not that I believe Iran should have nuclear weapons – all I'm saying is that I am wondering about the exact ruleset by which countries holding nuclear power justify telling other countries to not hold the same power (e.g. the US also threatens other countries, some may call China a not-so-nice gov't, some may say killing civilians in Hiroshima wasn't self-defense etc. – none of the points I want to discuss here, but it goes to show the issue is more blurred than you might think).

FYI only... a long time (jan/05), I posted this ..

peterdawson.typepad.com/blog/2 ...

along the same lines, as a member of omidyar community, I cross posted on that forum. Now, i discover a nice thread of conversation a year later there!

omidyar.net/group/community-ge ...

"explicit threats" you mean like invading, spreading death and chaos in a country ? oh beg your pardon THIS is "liberaton"!!

your "democratic" heroes are the nazis of the 21st centuries, do you realize that y'all right wing geeks!