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Argument: Nuclear weapons in radical Iran are an intolerable risk

Issue Report: Is a nuclear Iran intolerable?

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“An ‘Intolerable’ Threat”. Wall Street Journal. February 3, 2006 – “Iran’s current leaders seem possessed of an apocalyptic Islamist vision that wouldn’t mind an episode of pan-global martyrdom. ‘We must prepare ourselves to rule the world and the only way to do that is to put forth views on the basis of the Expectation of the Return’ of the Mahdi (Shiite Messiah), says Mr. Ahmadinejad.”

Reuel Marc Gerecht said in a 2006 NPR debate: “Do you want to give individuals who run what I would call a more sophisticated version of bin Ladenism, do you want to let them have the nuke?”[1]

“No Nuclear Iran”. Anti-Defamation League – Why is Iran’s nuclear weapons program a problem?

Iran’s regime is a source of extremism and destabilization in the region and around the globe. It has defied the international community with its support for terrorism and cultivation of extremist forces. It has thumbed its nose at international efforts to ascertain the extent and purpose of its nuclear program. Its leaders have repeatedly called for Israel’s demise and have propagated base anti-Semitism, including the denial of the Holocaust. There is consensus in the international community that nuclear weapons in the hands of this increasingly radical and reckless regime would lead to a dangerous geo-strategic shift in the Middle East, potentially leading to a nuclear arms race in the region. Such weapons would bolster Iran’s aggressive and destructive foreign policy, and represent a direct and existential threat to Israel and other countries in the region.

Joshua Muravchik. “Opposing View: Iranian Bomb ‘Intolerable'”. USA Today. November 20, 2007 – The dangers an Iranian bomb would present are intolerable. Iran is the pre-eminent sponsor of terrorism. Iranian weapons are responsible for a large share of U.S. casualties in Iraq. Our forces in Afghanistan have intercepted Iranian arms shipments to the Taliban. Argentina has indicted Iranian officials for blowing up a Buenos Aires Jewish center. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said Tehran was behind Hamas’ armed takeover of Gaza. Iran provides haven to fugitive leaders of al-Qaeda. The list goes on.

Mortimer Zuckerman. “The World Cannot Live With the Threat of a Nuclear Iran”. US News and World Report. March 23, 2009 – Fundamentally, a nuclear Iran represents a unique threat. The fear of mutually assured destruction has long restrained other nuclear powers. There is a real risk that the Iranian leadership is not rational, that driven by its mad hatreds, it will act in ways that are unreasonable, even self-destructive. Anti-Americanism is a cornerstone of the ideology of this Islamic state. The virulence of Iran’s hostility is impervious to reason. “Death to America!” has provoked the Iranian street for over a quarter of a century and is the venom upon which an entire generation of Iranians has been raised. The dominant Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reiterates that Iran’s differences with America are more fundamental than political differences.

Whatever may happen to the leadership over time, the inescapable fact is that the United States just cannot take the risk of nuclear missiles in the hands of a clerical regime that preaches genocide. It is pathetic that appeasement continues to beguile.


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