If the 'enemy' is armed, it really cuts down the options for
terrorists choice methods of attack.
Imagine, one might not be safe waging terrorism/war on another if they
could protect themselves, much less might retaliate.
Of course in an idea world, disarmament would be better, but in the real
world we know that, only the bullies and murders will be armed, the
defenseless would be forced to remain defenseless or be treated brutally
when they are upset about their servitude to the armed, and the bullies
are worried that an armed society is dangerous to them, when, not should,
they force others to do as they wish.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
from FAIR and NPR
Iran and the Threat of Not Having Future Wars
02/03/2012 by Peter Hart
The conventional understanding you get from the media is that Israel is
worried that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose a serious threat to the
country's existence.
Is that really what's happening, though? Another interpretation is that
Iran might want nuclear weapons not to launch any such an attack but to
prevent an attack on its country--nuclear deterrence, in other words.
(Of course, it's important to note that there is currently no evidence
that Iran is pursuing a weapons program.)
I was struck when I heard Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman bring up some
of these ideas on NPR's Talk of the Nation on January 30. Bergman is no
outsider critic of Israeli policy; when he appeared recently on the
NewsHour (1/12/12) and was asked about the assassination of Iranian
scientists, his answer was: "I don't know. And even if I knew, I would
tell you that I don't know."
Here's what he said on NPR, appearing to talk about his New York Times
magazine piece on Israel and Iran:
NEAL CONAN: Chris, thanks very much for the call. Israel itself
possesses, what, 300 nuclear weapons we believe, maybe more? Why does
not deterrence work? Israel, of course, would retaliate if Iran were to
use a nuclear weapon.
BERGMAN: I would assume that--oh, I know that most of Israel's
leaders do not believe that Iran is going to use nuclear weapons against
Israel. The problem is not the nuclear threat. The Iranians are not
stupid. They want to live.... And I think that most leaders, and me
personally as well, see that there are only a few people who believe
that Iran would be hesitant enough to--sorry, brutal enough and stupid
enough to use nuclear weapon against Israel.
The problem is that once Iran acquires this ability, it would
change the balance of power in the Middle East. And a country that
possesses nuclear weapon is a different country when it comes to support
proxy jihadist movement. And these Israeli leaders afraid would
significantly narrow down the variety of options from the point of view
of Israel, just to quote one example coming from Minister of Defense
Barak, when he said, just imagine--he told me in a meeting we had on the
13th of January in his house--said, just imagine, Ronen, that tomorrow
we go into another war with Hezbollah in Lebanon like we did in 2006,
and this time we are determined to take them out. But Iran comes forward
and say, to attack Hezbollah is like attacking Iran, and we threaten you
with nuclear weaponry.
Now, Minister of Defense Barak says it's not necessarily that we
would be threatened not to attack, and we would decide to cancel the
war, but it would certainly make us think twice.
In other words, Israel's position might be that an nuclear-armed Iran
could make it harder to have future wars. That's a very different
discussion from the one we're having now.
http://www.fair.org/blog/2012/02/03/iran-and-the-threat-of-not-having-future-wars/
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