Threats are a combination the enemies ability and intent. Like the lethality of electricity is a combination of volts and amps. The Soviets were all volts. The Iranians are mostly amps.
The Soviets adhered to MAD. They well understood that one nuke would end it all for them, even if they could end us too.
The Iranians are not jobs, believe Allah will shield them, and well understand that we have a paralysis of the will when it comes to nuking cities full of people.
Had we nuked their bomb program two years ago, we likely could have set a precedent that would have prevented nut-job nukes for the next 20 years. But now, especially with an Obama POTUS, the Iranians have many reasons to think that they can build 100 bombs and intimidate us.
What will happen when the Vatican is nuked with a terrorist bomb? Will we strike Mecca? Of course not. They know it and we know it.
First Obama didn't simply say that Iran was a smaller threat, he said that they were a small threat.
Threats are a combination of the enemy's ability and intent. Like the lethality of electricity is a combination of volts and amps. The Soviets were mainly volts. The Iranians are mostly amps. A person can survive the millions of volts in a lightning bolt, because there are no amps, wheres 120 volts with 5 amps will kill you.
The Soviets adhered to MAD. They well understood that using just one nuke against us would end it all for them, even if they could end us too.
The Iranians are nut-jobs, believe Allah will shield them, and well understand that we have a paralysis of the will when it comes to nuking cities full of people.
Had we nuked their bomb program two years ago, we likely could have set a precedent that would have prevented nut-job nukes for the next 20 years. But now, especially with an Obama POTUS, the Iranians have many reasons to think that they can build 100 bombs and intimidate us from responding when they use just one.
What will happen when the Vatican is nuked with a terrorist bomb? Will we strike Mecca? Of course not. They know it and we know it. Which city full of innocent people will President Obama nuke in retaliation? Add to that question plausible denial by the Iranians, and the answer is obvious. i.e. He'll do nothing.
Will uranium forensics pin it to them? Not if they don't openly test or get their fissile material elsewhere. If the Iranians did have a black market Russian nuke or two, they would be hesitant to use them. However, if they also had 10-100 nukes of their own, then they could visualize a scenario very useful for them. e.g. Nuke NY, Rome, London, D.C., etc. with the Russian nuke, deny involvement openly, while the rest of the Islamic world accepted their leadership. A nuclear counter strike on them would certainly be limited and could be played as unjust. When they then detonated another preplaced bomb of their own in a Western city as “retaliation” and stated that they had another dozen ready to go, what would the West do?
MAD will not deter the Iranians for exactly the same reason that some people murder despite a death penalty.
Senator Obama is the second coming of Jimmy Carter. A man who painted a giant bullseye on the United States.