James Carroll, via CommonDreams.org:

The President’s Nuclear Threat

The Bush strategy claims to be at the service of democracy, but what Bush fails to grasp is that you can’t have democratic nations while repudiating democratic values among nations. The Non-Proliferation Treaty worked because it embodied the idea that nations, even if unequal in power or treasure, are mutually accountable, devoted to common standards, and bound by shared commitments. The main structure of democracy among nations consists precisely in that web of treaties (ABM, Kyoto, Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty – now Nuclear Non-Proliferation) that is brushed away by Bush’s ”distinctly American internationalism.”
”We will not hesitate to act alone,” Bush declares, promising to extend American sway by ”convincing or compelling states to accept their sovereign responsibilities.” The United States has become a ludicrous self-contradiction: a dictator state dictating democracy. And how does Bush imagine others nations will respond?