Just in case the prospect of a new war in the middle east wasn’t enough to curl your toes. The administration, apparently unchastened by their string of glaring failures & absurdly optimistic military projections is seriously considering the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Iran. This is a HUGE deal. It would erase the taboo on nuclear use & weaken the only firebreak that kept us alive for the long decades of MAD. It has very serious potential consequences in the India/Pakistan, the Taiwan strait… Not to mention the potential human & economic costs in the middle east. Be Very Afraid.
“The Bush Administration, while publicly advocating diplomacy in order to stop Iran fro pursuing a nuclear weapon, has increase clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack…The lack of reliable intelligence leaves military planners, given the goal of totally destroying the sites, little choice but to consider the use of tactical nuclear weapons. “Every other option, in the view of the nuclear weaponeers, would leave a gap,” the former senior intelligence official said. “ ‘Decisive’ is the key word of the Air Force’s planning. It’s a tough decision. But we made it in Japan.”
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060417fa_fact
Again, I understand why US shouldn’t bomb Iran.
Any ideas on what US/Europe/China/Russia should do? Or just let Iran or other Islamic country create nuclear weapons and wait for a nuclear 9-11?
Russia has already agreed to help Iran develop nuclear power – which gives the Europeans access to Iranian nuclear programs from which to better monitor it.
We in the west are going to have to learn to deal with regimes that we have nothing ideologically in common with. We spent how many years in a cold war with the USSR and never blew anything up?
Iran wants something and they want to use force to negotiate for it. Same as North Korea. We don’t want Iran to be able to negotiate from a postition of power and the more we try to squelch their attempts the harder they are going to fight for it.