The Iranian Miscalculation

They have illegally captured 15 Brits. Iran continues to demonstrate that it is a rogue state. With the exception of wanting nuclear weapons, they insist on living a male-dominated and female-subjugated medieval lifestyle.

I can hear the drums of war, or at least the words of a good, but militant friend of mine: "Why not grant their wish and give them nuclear weapons? How about 8 of them, with airbursts over each of their cities of one million or more people? Heck, maybe 2 over Tehran. But not such big ones that anyone dies. Airbursts at the edge of space that just fry every bit of late 20th and 21st century electronics they have. The oil won’t be contaminated. No people will be hurt. They will simply be removed from the modern world. Isn’t that what their government wants?"

At this emotional point of the whole ordeal, it’s hard to argue with that.

And if the people in that country decide to string these fanatical old men who run Iran up, the western world will be happy to trade oil for the rebuilding of their country in such a way that it will be able to live peacefully with the rest of the world.

We tend to think of nukes as only good for blowing things up and spreading radioactive fallout (the dust stirred up by the explosion and dosed with radiation). The small airbursts that create an electromagnetic pulse that renders solid state circuits mostly inert don’t stir up fallout, and the radiation is mostly dispersed harmlessly.

Don’t be surprised if the Jericho episode "9:02" becomes another example of life imitating art.

We’re so worried about terrorists sneaking nukes into this country, then somehow arming, deploying and triggering them. All it takes for the U.S. Navy to deliver 8 warheads high over the biggest 8 cities in Iran is a phone call from the President to the Commander of one of the task forces on station in the area, or to a single B2 Stealth Bomber.

The Iranians need to think long and hard about that. They are struggling to develop the technology to build a nuclear weapon. We already have thousands, and not only know how to use them, our government HAS used them when it was important to do so to save lives.

I hope cooler heads prevail. I hope the Iranians wake up and realize they’re opening not a can of worms, but a can of whoop-ass with themselves as the "whoop-ee." Despite their rhetoric, they are out of their league on this one.

But, I don’t think cooler heads WILL prevail. For all we’ve been through, here we are almost 30 years later, and the Iranians are taking hostages again. I don’t think the game will go 444 days this time.

Posted in Terrorism, War