http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Cole_bombing

Is the Cole upgraded to Pac-3 etc. yet?

If Iran uses a nuclear device, within 30 minutes Iran will become a hole in the ground.

NewsWonk

“But with these people in Iran, mutually assured destruction is not a deterrent factor, but rather an inducement,”

I’ve been saying the same thing for years and it’s important the libs wake up from their denial and get on board before it’s too late.

For our own safety we need to ensure the mad-mullahs never get the bomb as the MAD doctrine is not a deterent to them because, well, they’re MAD as mercury sniffing hatters!

I’m swamped this week but still managing a few posts at Hot Air. Here’s one. Here’s another. And this one about Obama and the Weathermen is OK. I’ll be back here before long, so keep checking in………

That said, I wonder if the real solution isn’t as simple as granting the Iranian regime’s expressed wish to revisit the seventh century. Hit that gas refinery. Blow up anything military just to avoid the nuisance factor. Hit their electric plants — see how well those uranium centrifuges spin in the dark when turned by hand. Hit the airports, highways, railroads, and canals. Take out their radio broadcast towers and telephone networks; blockade their ports and close their borders. After the first couple of weeks, fly over occasionally and take out anything that uses electricity or internal combustion — easily detected by the exhaust or electromagnetic signature.

You don’t need to nuke anything. Just cut off the networks and let the pieces discover how interdependent they are. They keep disparaging all that nouveau stuff from the 1800’s and 1900’s anyway.

I suspect that building an empire in the 600’s required a completely different skillset than building a modern empire today, and that the geniuses currently running the show wouldn’t function too well with a complete change of rules.

It’s not really worth our worry.
Mark Jaquith on February 27, 2008 at 10:21 PM

No? They already have missles that travel 2,000 miles. Load one of those on a ship, fire it from a Venezualan flagged tanker in the Gulf of Mexico, detonate it 300 miles over Kansas, and welcome to America, 1880 style.

+1 to the USA if it ever goes that far

Since the US Navy (squids are good for something) can shoot down fast moving objects in space, does Iran really want to push it that far?

+2 to the USA

Iran does not care about MAD

-5 to the USA

I think we are in steelmate.

Let Iran know that we will nuke every country and take out every Muslim country that advocates nuking the US. Once the US shows that resolve then Muslim countries around the world will put preassure on Iran to back off.

Think about it…

If we tell the Saudi’s “If Iran attacks us with nukes we will attack/nuke Mecca” and if we show that resolve I expect the Saudi’s will put pressure on Iran to make sure that does not happen.

While Iran/nukes is a concern it is like bringing a knife to a gun fight.

The key is making Iran realize they hold the knife and the USA has the gun.

Reminds me of the cold war, where neither Moscow or DC were willing to go that far.

Doubleplus— nukes aren’t very good for securing internal stability. You need different weapons for that. If you nuke one of your own cities, you hope of maintaining order and/or international viability are zeroed out.

see-dubya on February 27, 2008 at 7:04 PM

I don’t see how. If your population sees that you’re crazy enough to nuke one of your own cities the reasonable ones are gonna realize they can either calm down or be turned to ash. Internationally, if foreigners see that you’re crazy enough to nuke one of your own cities, they’ll reasonably assume you’d have no second thoughts about nuking one of their own and they’ll have to deal with you even if they don’t like it just because of that.

Hard to deter a suicide bomber with nukes — and there in lies the real problem, does it not?

tarpon on February 27, 2008 at 6:56 PM

The Shia, which the Mad Mullahs are, don’t tend to be the splodeydopes. The Sunni do. There’s a lot of reasoned speculation out there why, one of the theories has to do with sexuality. The Shia have the ‘rent-a-wives’ concept, and don’t supress the sexuality of the males quite so much, where the Sunni shove it down, preach the 72 virgins crap, and the lads don’t feel they have anything to live for. Everything to gain by going boom.

The Shia do however, tend to be end of times types. They believe that the Mahdi, or 12th Imam, can only return in a world of chaos, which they will helpfully provide. That’s why they don’t bother building refineries to help bolster their horribly short gas supplies, why they’re plunging massive amounts of money into their nukular program when they have runaway inflation, and why Ahmadinnerjacket rebuilt part of Tehran with pretty boulevards leading up to the well He is supposed to emerge from.

THAT is why MAD won’t work with these folks.

Unlike the earthbound, materialistic Communists (who require an existing planet to lord over), the millennialist and immaterialist cranks like the Jihadists (who believe in Another World for their meaning and salvation and destiny) cannot be “reasoned” with or threatened with Earthly Doom …to any effect.

They would love to see the Earth consumed and to enter Paradise (not just a little because their own belief system of Islam makes this very life a Hell and a torment and a prison for them… and Heaven promises them wine and virgins and gardens).

Communists wanted to own this Earth.

Jihadists would be more than happy to see our planet vaporized… and all beings on it slaughtered … if it “served Allah”.

(And theocratic maniacs can always rationalize that last qualifier.)

Our goal must be:

To keep their hands off the weaponry of the Apocalypse.

Since they do bad enough work with kitchen knives.

We should in no way refuse to do the right thing because we will worry what Iran will do in retaliation. We must not allow them to gain access to nuclear bombs at whatever cost.

Agreed. I wish we would because we owe them serious payback for these last 30 years terrorism they have sponsored. But, sadly, I doubt we will.

NOTHING EVER HAPPENS to Tehran when they bomb us

That’s right. And if Barak Hussein Obama is elected president they’ll see the election as a green light to bomb us again with whatever is available in their arsenal. They know that liberals/leftist place more value on empty words and the threat of diplomacy than military action. The good news is you still have 11 months to move away from potential high value targets and stock up on supplies.

Hear hear!

We’ve been trying to destabilize the government of Iran for a long time now. For example, we’re trying to capitalize on the sentiment of the younger generations who are quite vocal and adamant against certain held beliefs by their elder leaders.

It is to be assumed Iran will try to retaliate when the US or Israel attacks the nuke sites. It is more important that the nuke sites get taken out against any “What Will Iran Do?” in retaliation. I hope they come and attack the US and its allies, we will give them a good taste of what Iraq went through (who had a hell of a more modern and larger military than Iran has) in both Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom. This isn’t hubris — we will certainly take some damage, but Iran will bleed a lot more than us.

I don’t even believe Iran would be stupid enough to retaliate with a direct military attack. It will be much more insidious than that, deciding rather to engage in a string of mass suicide bombs in Israel.

We should in no way refuse to do the right thing because we will worry what Iran will do in retaliation. We must not allow them to gain access to nuclear bombs at whatever cost.

If we were nuked by any one….think of what would happen.

Our economy would most likely crash. We would withdraw from the world and millions of Muslims would starve in their earthen huts. Africa would be depopulated, starvation, no water and no medicine, no one to help them. Arabs would pay $502.50 for a bushel of wheat (if they could find it).
When we reemerged, we would be free of hydro-carbons and offer the same technology to the rest of the world,(probably no charge). Once again it would be a bitch to live in the Desert with camels.
Europe would go through Civil Wars between Anglos and Muslims born in their countries, both sides calling on God to bless their righteous efforts. All in all it would be a sh*t sandwich and we would all have to take a bite.
I’m Not looking froward to it.

Liberty, thanks for your service, it’s because of people like you we’re free to debate these issues.

The likes of Iran is a different situation than the USSR because the Russians didn’t have, as part of their belief the spreading of communism, to start a world war to bring about their version of the Messiah so this savior can eliminate the State’s enemies, bring world peace, and everyone can sing the equivalent of Russian “Kum Ba Ya” (with those dancing bearded guys who jump up and down with their arms folded, etc). Like many here, I do not believe the leaders in Iran, such as the likes of Ahmadinejad and his 12th Imam fetish.

For all their faults, the Russians had really level heads about them. I am not so sure about the leaders in Iran, especially those who would have the ability to have their hand hover over the Big Red Button. Though with the likes of Iran, it will more likely be a proxy attack, utilizing very experienced terrorists to deliver a nuclear device to kill Americans or their allies.