How do you solve a problem like Iran and North Korea?

Iran and North Korea are both giving much of the rest of the world a big headache with their nuclear ambitions. But it is a headache that the two countries cannot be blamed entirely for.

Shorn of the ambiguity of selective logic and hypocrisy, the rest of the world actually had it coming. One just cannot hit on a good idea, develop it into something that works, and then expect to lap up the benefits in reclusion.

That is not the way of the world. Human beings love the goodies spread around. Certainly the United States did not think that when it brought Japan to its knees with just two atomic bombs, the rest of the world would just stay impervious and not want similar bombs of their own.

Yet that is just the darker side of human nature, the belligerent aspect of the human psyche. What about his more lovable and acceptable traits? Certainly man also desires to live a productive, comfortable and peaceful life. Nuclear power can fulfill those desires as well.

The truth of the matter is that the nuclear question can be argued successfully from every viewpoint. If it cannot be pursued or defended from a strictly geopolitical stance, still it can from an ethical or even moral one.

Some argue that true justice, if it really works, must also work for the Devil. Iran and North Korea may belong to the axis of evil in the mind of George W. Bush and those who believe in him, but Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong Il cannot be denied their own right to be heard.

Of course, these leaders have a provocative streak that makes a lot of people, jealous of their way of life, resentful. And it is true that their countries either sponsor terrorism or are not exactly as forgiving toward their own citizens as they would ask to be forgiven by the world.

In other words, these countries are far from your idea of humming societies. If anything goes wrong in the world and you still do not know what, you can be forgiven if the first things that cross your mind are the names of these nations.

But the United States and its allies are no angels either. They have imperfections that leap up from their own lack of moral authority to practice what they preach. They may seem right now in this particular debate, but their spotty records say otherwise in other things.

Thus, arguably, the world may feel a tad safer if it is the United States or any of its allies that have the nuclear means for anything than it would be if recalcitrant countries like Iran and North Korea were the ones to have those means.

Clearly, nobody but their own people would believe Ahmadinejad or Kim even if they went up their separate mountaintops and there drop to their knees to proclaim their nuclear ambitions go no further than to enjoy their own right to adequate power for peaceful purposes.

For their countries just do not come clothed in the kind of contemporary historical garb that commands absolute confidence and respect. They are secretive and provocative, hardly factors that inspire peaceful sleep in the neighborhood.

Still, uncomfortable though we may be with the notion, just why can they not have nuclear ambitions? After all, those who are telling them they cannot are the very same ones who have long fulfilled their own similar ambitions.

It is very difficult to make yourself understood and convince the spoiled brat in your street that ice cream is not good for him when you yourself are talking to him with ice cream in your mouth.