That is precisely why today we cannot allow bad guys like Saddam to get their hands on nukes: not merely because a crazed Saddam might actually use them on us but also because a rational Saddam, one not interested in committing suicide by attacking us out of the blue with nukes, could nonetheless use them as accessories to aggression.
Creating the currency union was not a random act of collective economic suicide, but was in some senses a rational or even noble project that was either premature or too late.
These assumptions are now being widely questioned as the threat of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of suicide terrorists becomes more realistic and as our ability to deter such harms by classical rational cost-benefit threats and promises becomes less realistic.
