Stephen A. Lawrence wrote:
Honestly, I do not see how the US or any what other country can
object to this.
Perhaps the fact that the president of Iran asserted that their goal
is to erase Israel from the map has something to do with it.
Of course I realize he says that, but for that matter so do many
political leaders in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and other countries
which are supposedly our allies. Furthermore, Iran cannot destroy
Israel using a gigawatt power reactor. They might reprocess the fuel,
but I am confident that precautions can be put in place to prevent
this, such as IAEA observers in the plants. After all, the US and
others are ostensibly willing to sell power reactors to North Korea,
which has acted far more irresponsibly than Iran.
Besides, he is not a fool. He knows that Israel has many nuclear
weapons and would not hesitate to use them if they knew an attack
came from Iran. The only way to attack Israel with a nuclear weapon
and avoid annihilation is to smuggle in one warhead. Nobody could
launch a salvo of them and survive more than a half-hour.
If you are going to smuggle in one warhead, why not just buy one on
the Russian black market? Why bother developing bombs, when they are
available for a few hundred thousand bucks each from drunk Russian
military officers, or possibly, available to anyone who brings a pair
of wire-cutters. (This is called the "loose nuke" problem. Many
ex-Soviet nuclear weapons are secured in weak bunkers surrounded by
little more than rusty barbed wire, guarded by drunk Russian
soldiers. The US and Russia are trying to do something about this,
but the programs are chronically underfunded and delayed.)
- Jed
