A nuclear-armed Iran too big a risk to world safety

A PARENT can’t afford life-saving medication for her child, and chooses to steal it. Is that morally justifiable? You know beyond doubt that someone has committed murder, but cannot prove it. Would it be reasonable to give false testimony to ensure that they are jailed for a robbery they may not have committed? Or even, the more prosaic question: you hate the sweater your great-aunt bought you for your birthday. Is it reasonable to lie and claim you really like it?

- Jonathan Arnott

The question I've been asking myself recently, in the light of the United States airstrikes on Iran's nuclear sites, is a similar moral dilemma - only a real-world one, and with higher stakes. What happens when principle and pragmatism clash?

I'll try to avoid the temptation to become the latest in a long line of people who have become overnight experts in the usage and purity of enriched uranium. Let's simply say that Iran has been a state sponsor of terrorism, that it clearly was close to developing a nuclear weapon, and that nobody was particularly confident that it couldn’t be used.