Why be Afraid of Nuclear Iran?

I can believe that a person can be suicidal. Plenty of those around, in fact. But a nation, as a whole -- that's a different proposition. I do not believe any nation will commit suicide, and Iranians are no exception.

Consider. Iran is a long way from obtaining a nuclear weapon, but that not the core of the problem. Making a crude nuclear weapon is rather easy: I remember a schematics of one in my grade-school level physics textbook (yes, we did have physics course in grade school). So lets assume they will create one, sooner or later. So what? The difficult part is to deliver that weapon efficiently. Building -- or even buying -- a working ICBM that can fly between continents is not a trivial matter, in fact, out of the reach of countries like Iran for any foreseeable future.

They may use it against their neighbors, though, in particular against Israel. And here is where my disbelief kicks in. Israel is determined to protect herself, and her will and ability were put to test a number of times, with pretty much uniform results ("Don't mess with us", if you need me to spell it out). As of now, our intelligence organizations put the number of Israel's nuclear warheads to 400. On the other hand, Wikipedia, in their "Modern cities and important towns of Iran" lists 201 places. If Iran dares to attack Israel with its couple of homemade Fat Mans, they may succeed in destroying a city or two. But the response may, and most likely would, erase every single population center in Iran. Twice. As I said -- I do not believe in suicidal nations.

And if they are? If they are truly blind, stupid, and misguided? Well, they commit suicide, we have one problem less. Some bleeding hearts will cry over the "once great nation", and history will resume its march...


whereIstand.com issue: here