Originally Posted by
William F. Owen
Personally, I and a few others consider Iranian nuclear capability to be strategically less important than popularly imagined.
a.) How can they use nukes against Israel as a strategic option? Why is killing 75% of the population of Israel, going to further any policy especially when it might results in the death of 50% of the Iranian and loss of 90% of it's GDP for 5 years.
- The argument that Iran has an irrational leadership would always have to suppose that they cannot be rationally deterred. Thus, NO US/Israeli action can provide the strategic result necessary.
b.) It could well be suggested that threat of Iranian WMD has done nothing but benefit Israel in terms of maintaining a number of "flag ship" programmes which would otherwise have been under threat.
c.) The other issue being avoided is how Iranian interference in Israeli security, de-facto dams any prospect of a Palestinian State, since it is Iran's aim to control any Palestinian Government, in order to base forces within the Palestinian state.
d.) Iranian WMD is primarily a strategic issue for the US, in terms of it's ability to project power in the region - and that has security implications for Israel, as does any interference in Middle East strategic dynamics.
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