LH, of course they only want the Bomb for self-defense. None of them would ever use it for nuclear blackmail, to inflict their will on their neighbors thus controling an entire region by fear.
Our motives may be no more pure than those of Saddam but if I have to make a choice over who will exercise the greatest influence in the Middle East, I want it to be us.
Believe me, thats what it boils down to. "If only" is very well in theory but the practicalities of the world dictate otherwise. Communism looks great on paper but the experience of the last century shows otherwise.
So keep your idealism Hawk, because we need idealists. They remind us of what might be someday and that's important. But don't excoriate the pragmatists who deal with things as they are instead of how they could be.

troll

"Neurotics build castles in the air, psychotics live in them and psychiatrists collect the rent."