Nuclear lure: Iran strikes may make more states yearn for the bomb

Depending on when you tuned in to the news over the past week, you would have heard some or all of the rationales America has presented, at a head-spinning pace, for

its latest attack on Iran

. There is the campaign to destroy Tehran’s missile programme and navy, the objective of rescuing pro-democracy activists, and even the

floated idea of regime change.

Among these “kaleidoscopic” war aims, suppose one accepts, as most in favour of the intervention do, that at least one objective is consistent and defensible: obliterating Iran’s nuclear programme. By that logic, for all the disruption the strikes have unleashed, the world should be grateful. Thank you, President Donald Trump, for preserving the nuclear status quo and not allowing another state to acquire nuclear weapons.