Grey Area of Nonproliferation

I just watched Christiane Amanpour interview US Secretary of Hillary ClintonHillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert GatesSecretary of Defense Robert Gates. They talked about Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran. Gates said that he wanted the Iranians to conclude that they would be better off without nukes than with nukes. And he made it clear that he wasn't just talking about being better off from a security standpoint, but also from an economic one. He was trying to explain that that's the ultimate goal of American diplomacy towards Iran. Fairly straightforward stuff.

But then Gates parroted the oft-heard line that if Iran goes nuclear, its neighbours will as well. I've always been confused by this hypothetical scenario. Like what if Saudi Arabia decides to go nuclear? Has the US formulated a policy to deal with such a scenario? You can't really offer carrots to the Saudis. Countries with oil don't need economic aid. And you can't beat them with a stick either. The US economy would collapse if the US tried to sanction the Saudis. Military option? Unrealistic.

By the way, it's funny how almost nobody ever talks about using the military option with Saudi Arabia. The only guy that I've heard bring it up is Henry KissingerHenry Kissinger. Not recently, but quite a while ago... back when he was part of the Nixon Administration. Kissinger wanted to seize Saudi oil fields because he was mad at Saudi Arabia for the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973.

And is the US going to offer carrots to Egypt to prevent them from going nuclear? Egypt is already the second-largest recipient of US economic aid (after Israel). Sticks? Not an option. Egypt is critical to Israel's security. So here's what puzzles me: when US officials talk about the need to prevent Iran from going nuclear, they talk about Egypt and Saudi Arabia going nuclear as if that's a definite eventuality... as if the US is going to do nothing to prevent them from going nuclear in the face of a nuclear Iran.

So I guess my question is: why is the US going to only use kid gloves to deal with an Egyptian and/or Saudi nuclear weapons program all the while sanctioning the Iranians to the teeth to make them forgo their nuclear program??? The big powers are talking about slapping more and more sanctions on Iran, and even keeping the military option open. But nobody is talking about even the possibility of sanctions or the military option to deal with a potential Saudi nuclear weapons program or an Egyptian one.

It makes you wonder if the US really supports nonproliferation or if it only supports nonproliferation when it comes to countries that aren't US allies. A while back, I remember hearing former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton say that the US should help Japan develop nukes in order to counter North Korea. It seems nonproliferation is a grey area for Bolton. And not only him... it seems to be a grey area for President Obama too.