Iran leader asks Merkel for help on Zionism

[Yahoshua]

The Sum of All fears....

Only remembered it cuz you mentioned the pop machine.

[August]

Originally Posted by scandium

[As to a nuclear armed Iran, sure it scares the hell out of me - but to them it provides a guarantee of security in a region where there is very little of it (and the irony that it is Iran which is responsible for much of the instability in the region is not lost on me, no).

All i'm saying is that it is a false sense of security, and a dangerous one at that. Unlike NK they don't have a superpower to protect them. I believe that once they get the bomb, and i'm thinking they will regardless of any present of future efforts short of invasion, they'll either use it (possibly by proxy) or threaten to use it and at that point somebody will let loose on them.

[scandium]

Originally Posted by August

All i'm saying is that it is a false sense of security, and a dangerous one at that. Unlike NK they don't have a superpower to protect them. I believe that once they get the bomb, and i'm thinking they will regardless of any present of future efforts short of invasion, they'll either use it (possibly by proxy) or threaten to use it and at that point somebody will let loose on them.

That's the most likely scenario I imagine: if they get too close to nuclear capability, or actually achieve it, they will be bombed (with conventional weapons most likely), as happened in Iraq when their nuclear facilities were bombed by Israel way back when. Therefore its a game of roulette for them that neither NK nor (I believe) Pakistan had to face, having been both been able to present their nuclear weapons as accomplished fact and with conventional power to hit back, severely, at US assets or allies in the region if any attempt were made to destroy their weapons.

[August]

Originally Posted by scandium

That's the most likely scenario I imagine: if they get too close to nuclear capability, or actually achieve it, they will be bombed (with conventional weapons most likely), as happened in Iraq when their nuclear facilities were bombed by Israel way back when. Therefore its a game of roulette for them that neither NK nor (I believe) Pakistan had to face, having been both been able to present their nuclear weapons as accomplished fact and with conventional power to hit back, severely, at US assets or allies in the region if any attempt were made to destroy their weapons.

I agree with you regarding Iran. Nothing but saber rattling will be done for now.

Like i said though, NK has an advantage that's a lot more powerful than any minor nuke capability alone because they have the China ready to defend them if they're attacked without Pekings permission. Pakistan had similar backing from the USSR.

Iran on the other hand doesn't have a big brother to protect them, which is I think one reason why they've been making overtures to China.