Quote:Being hit with a nuclear weapon is hardly ideal for anyone, but to suggest that it would cripple Israel seems like a stretch to me. They'd have ten more nukes stamped "From Israel with Love" on their way to Tehran in minutes. The Iranian government is not stupid. They can posture against Israel all they want, but they will not start a war that they have no chance at all of winning.

 

If Iran fires an ICBM at us, it would be shot down. That's really all there is to it. Iran might be able to build a long-range delivery platform--might--but making it stealthy enough to slip past the US' missile defenses is all but impossible for a country that still relies on F-14A-model Tomcats and reverse-engineered F-5's as its front line of defense. If Iran did fire at us, we would blast the government to pieces with conventional weapons, and as long as we didn't go nuclear, I doubt that Russia or China would be willing to engage on Iran's behalf. It's pretty hard to justify defending someone because they were dumb enough to fire a nuke at the biggest military powerhouse in the world.

 

Quote:Being hit with a nuclear weapon is hardly ideal for anyone, but to suggest that it would cripple Israel seems like a stretch to me. They'd have ten more nukes stamped "From Israel with Love" on their way to Tehran in minutes. The Iranian government is not stupid. They can posture against Israel all they want, but they will not start a war that they have no chance at all of winning.

 

If Iran fires an ICBM at us, it would be shot down. That's really all there is to it. Iran might be able to build a long-range delivery platform--might--but making it stealthy enough to slip past the US' missile defenses is all but impossible for a country that still relies on F-14A-model Tomcats and reverse-engineered F-5's as its front line of defense. If Iran did fire at us, we would blast the government to pieces with conventional weapons, and as long as we didn't go nuclear, I doubt that Russia or China would be willing to engage on Iran's behalf. It's pretty hard to justify defending someone because they were dumb enough to fire a nuke at the biggest military powerhouse in the world.

 

With all due respect, i think this is evidence of a frankly dangerous thought process.  

 

1.) When you start off any point with "well i mean if one of our closest allies was nuked and suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties, would it really be that bad" you know that you are on the wrong footing.  

 

2.) you don't need a conventional delivery system coming over the pole to devastate an american city.  We already have a southern border that's unprotected and ports that only check about 5% of the freight that comes into this country.  The idea of allowing weapons grade nuclear material into the hands of admitted unrepentant terrorists is asinine, and especially when you consider the fact that the key component to this foreign policy move is that we are talking about the Iranian apocalyptic cult hopefully going to war with the even more apocalyptic cult in the form of isis.  What happens if one of their nuclear sites is compromised in 5 years.  

 

3.) Most importantly and most missed, Nuclear weapons from a strategic standpoint are more about defense rather than offense.  In essence, Yes even for a jihadi there could be a moment of pause before intentionally starting a thermonuclear by lobbing a bomb into Israel or the US.  At the same time nukes make it almost impossible for another country to invade and change a regime.  When you look at the policy of iran and its territorial ambitions they basically do as much as possible to exert influence and destabilize the region while staying just below the threshold of a country like ours or Israel saying that the transgressions are enough to merit a March on Tehran.  The moment they become a nuclear power that option is completely off the table and they will be able to do almost whatever they want whenever they want and not have a real threat of a ground force in their country.  Just imagine today if there was another 9-11 style attack on an american city and the iatola came on television and claimed responsibility.  Flash forward 10 years and the 100 surface to surface nukes they will probably have and see how your demeanor changes.  

---