Trending Topics
|
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/12/AR2006041201659.html
After Diplomacy Fails: Think Imaginatively about Iran
(Washington Post) Mark Helprin - With an intermediate-range strategic nuclear capacity, Iran could deter American intervention, reign over the Persian Gulf, further separate Europe from American Middle East policy, correct a nuclear imbalance with Pakistan, lead and perhaps unify the Islamic world, and thus create the chance to end Western dominance of the Middle East and/or with a single shot destroy Israel. Iran's claim of innocuous nuclear ambitions comports both with the Islamic doctrine of taqqiya (literal truth need not be conveyed to infidels) and the Western doctrine of state secrecy, and it is part of a strategy of deception and false compromise deployed to buy time.