re: #278 Killgore Trout

Everyone seems to think that Israel has a couple hundred nuclear weapons since after they completed the Dimona facility. They’ve never acknowledged whether they have weapons or not, and have not tested a weapon. They’ve used the ambiguity as a defense in and of itself to ward off a potential attack, though that fell short during the first Gulf War when Saddam lobbed dozens of Scuds at Israel in an attempt to bring them into the fight and break up the coalition effort.

Now, Iran’s mullahs have different intentions and Iran’s nuclear infrastructure indicates a completely different tact. Far from being open about their nuclear ambitions, they’ve repeatedly hidden nuclear facilities, buried them underground, and spread them around the country. All while calling for genocidal rhetoric against Israel’s existence mind you. Carter hears on what he wants to hear - that Iran is carrying out enrichment for peaceful purposes, but Iran’s actions suggest something quite different.

Combine the nuclear program with an intention to develop and master intermediate range missiles capable of hitting Israel and other locales throughout the Middle East, and it’s a threat to the region at large.

It’s that latter part that has me wondering whether the recent spate of assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists aren’t the result of the Saudi or other Arab countries trying to thwart Iran’s ambitions (another chapter of the Sunni/Shi’a split) and regional hegemony among the Middle Eastern powers.