It has been pointed out to me that in responding to Jun Okumura, I had ignored interventions from Ellis Kraus and Thomas Berger. I had missed them and I apologise.
I think my recent reply to JO takes on some of their objections, including even the possibility of crazy, Sansom-and-the-temple desperation, but I was grateful to be pointed towards the Walzer/Sagan exchange,which I didnot know about, But TB's:
"It may well be that the NPT regime is falling apart, but it is for these reasons that we and other states are trying very hard to revive it - even if it is only for a couple more decades. "
does seem to me like a counsel of despair and a recipe for giving Israel a shred of legitimacy if it plunges the Middle East into war. And what would happen in twenty years time, with a China, rather than a US calling the shots?
As for EK's Pearl Harbour analogy, I very much see the point. In fact I am trying to write sometrhing on the parallels between Japan's resentful challenge to the status quo 1920-45 and the, developing, equally resentful Chinese challenge to American hegemony in the West Pacific. (see Lionel Barber in today'sFinancial Times on the need for an Asian Metternich.) Best wishes,

R Ronald Dor