Bush has labeled Iran part of the three nations which most threaten United States security as a nation, along with Iraq and North Korea. He based this statement on the premise that these three nations were developing "weapons of mass destruction," specifically, nuclear arms. Iraq, it has already been established, does not have weapons of mass destruction. North Korea might, and is currently in negotiations with neighboring countries to establish a proliferation protocol for their disarmament. This leaves Iran as an unresolved piece of the international security puzzle.

             In recent years, the international buzz regarding nuclear weapons has revolved around North Korea and Iran, two nations who are suspected of creating nuclear power plants and who the U.S. is strongly against acquiring nuclear weapons. The U.S., despite controlling the second-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world (10,700 to Russia's 20,000 and China's (the next largest producer's) 410), desperately wants to limit the ability of other nations to manufacture and sell their own nuclear weapons. (Cirincione 2002, p. 43) But these nations, especially Iran, have valid reasons for desiring nuclear projects.

             The U.S. specifically wants to limit Iran's nuclear capabilities, among other reasons, because Iran's government has ties to organizations that the U.S. government has deemed terrorist, like Hamas and Hezbollah. However, many nations that the U.S. does not object to the nuclear arsenals of, like former Soviet republics, have similar tenuous (or stronger) ties to organizations that the U.S. classifies as "terrorist." It is, of course, in the U.S.'s interest to be able to account for all nuclear weapons which exist in the world-but this aim can be achieved without limiting the sovereignty of other nations, as the U.S. is currently trying to do by limiting nuclear proliferation among other states.

             What makes the U.S. position especially counterfeit is that the U.