Reassessing the Implications of a Nuclear-Armed Iran (Inquiring Minds Want to Know)

National Defense University ^ | National Defense University

[SandRat]

As this paper goes to press, Iran has just come through its long anticipated presidential election. Despite predictions of a victory for a well-known clerical "moderate," former president and Expediency Council Head Akhbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, the winner was the hard-line conservative mayor of Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a relative unknown. The terms hard-liner and conservative are used virtually interchangeably by many inside and outside Iran; they are relative terms, since there are no political parties in Iran, with their meaning dependent on context and issue.-----

[SandRat]

Very long but exceedingly informative.

[pabianice]

Blah, blah, blah.

This issue is simple. A nuclear Iran will nuke Israel. Israel, which has almost certainly squirreled-away several hundred nukes outside its borders, will then obliterate most of the Arab world. Israel will survive in exile until the radiation decays in the Middle East. The surviving Arabs will take-over several other countries by force. The world, finally roused to action, will isolate the countries taken over by Arabs. Westren Europe will dither and ask for UN sanctions. The end of the century will look very different from the beginning. The radiation blow-over will toast most of Asia.

[Pylot]

The chief military strategist just addressed the Knesset this week.

He said that if no diplomatic solution is arrived at with Iran by March that the military option would have to be on the table.