I just love the easy talk of nukes and turning cities to glass in these threads. What stupidity.
[I just love the easy talk of nukes and turning cities to glass in these threads. What stupidity.]
It might be dumb for first use and I don't think we'd want to kill pro-American Iranian civilians in large numbers...but Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and Egypt are filled with cities that are stubbornly anti-American. A nuke or radiological device used by Al Qaeda or Hezbollah against American citizens could easily result in glass Muslims in Pakistan (if they riot) and glass Iranian Republican Guard units.
So, no, I don't think nukes would be used to clear mines in the Hormuz Strait. Everyone in the world would be thinking of the radioactivity problem even if most of the fallout would head out to sea from there.
Matthew 24 and Luke 21
http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Mat/Mat024.html#1
http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Luk/Luk021.html#1
The only way a nuke gets used on Tehran is if China and Russia decide it's the quickest resolution to the situation for all parties. Contrary to what a lot of people are surmising, I don't believe for a second either of these nations want war with the U.S. Iran, yeah. Russia and China? They're economically dependent on us like we're economically dependent on oil. they may be communists, but they're also businessmen. I wouldn't rule out Israel attacking with a nuclear weapon if it concludes that Iran cannot be stopped conventionally, but like you said, the situation will have to be exponentially worse than just blocking the straits and it would have to be clear that by doing so, an inevitable, much more deadly pan-regional conflict can be headed off.
We don't want to be the ones to let the pre-emptive nuclear genie out of the bottle unless it is absolutely certain (via nuclear testing) that Iran has reached atomic capability and is getting ready to deploy. It's easy to bandy the phrase "nuke 'em" about, but the ramifications have to outweigh the negatives of doing nothing, and only as a last resort.