Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Why can hawks live with a nuclear North Korea and Pakistan but not with Iran?

By "An Old Soldier" Best Defense office of nuclear skepticism Why is a nuclear armed Iran unacceptable, when an already nuclear-armed North Korea and Pakistan are?  In order to buy into the Iran exception (the other two being the rule, and now India, a third, has morphed into a rule maker) you have to believe that Iran is ...

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Wikimedia
Wikimedia

By "An Old Soldier"

By "An Old Soldier"

Best Defense office of nuclear skepticism

Why is a nuclear armed Iran unacceptable, when an already nuclear-armed North Korea and Pakistan are? 

In order to buy into the Iran exception (the other two being the rule, and now India, a third, has morphed into a rule maker) you have to believe that Iran is perfidious and powerful. The former is true, and the latter is not.  Iran is also not crazy or eager for the end of the world.  Watch what they do, not what they say. 

Israel has a nuclear monopoly.  They are deluded into thinking that they can keep this monopoly permanently. The GoI  also has to brush up on the theory of deterrence.  It worked for the U.S. and USSR, it works for China and the U.S., and it will work for Israel and Iran — especially because Iran is not crazy. 

A nuclear Iran is not good, and not preferable, but it is not the end of the world.  To bomb makes little sense and may be the policy equivalent of committing suicide out of the fear of death.

"An Old Soldier" is just that. Dammit. Where’s Terry Allen when we need him?

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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