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Originally Posted by BenRoethig
Iran's understanding of the matter begins and ends with 'Allah is supreme'. In short, if they have them, there isn't a whole lot stopping them from using nukes.
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Hi Ben,
I am not sure that I buy that assertion.
The following quote from Rafsanjani leads me to believe that there are those in Iran who know what the score is:
"If one day, the Islamic world is also equipped with weapons like those that
Israel possesses now, then the imperialists’ strategy will reach a standstill because the use of even one nuclear bomb inside Israel will destroy everything.
However, it will only harm the Islamic world."
One could probably make the case that what stops Iran from making wider use of other unconventional offsets such as chemical artillery and terrorism might also be the mechanism that would stop them from being too terribly irresponsible with nuclear weapons.
I do not think that the Iranians should have nuclear weapons simply because I am opposed to proliferation in general. However, unless someone wants start a war or start on the path to some sort of rapproachment, it might do us well to get used to the idea of Iran at least having a nuclear program (which makes weapons fairly easy to get) or in outright posession of nuclear weapons.
As usual, I am going to put in another plug for NDU's McNair Paper No. 69 "Reassesing the Implications of a Nuclear Armed Iran" as it is a very readable, comprehensive, and current introduction to a very nuanced situation.
Available for free:
http://www.ndu.edu/inss/mcnair/mcnair69/McNairPDF.pdf