Editorial: A Necessary Attack on Iran's Nuclear Bomb Factories

Editorial: A Necessary Attack on Iran's Nuclear Bomb Factories

This summer marks the 80th anniversary of mankind's co-existence with the Bomb - nuclear weapons.

Only two nuclear weapons have ever been used in warfare - the August 6, 1945 bombing of Hiroshima and the August 9, 1945 bombing of Nagasaki. The two bombs killed 220,000 people - and ended World War II.

For the past 80 years humans have managed and contained the horrific destructive power of nuclear weapons. Whole psychological and political science theories - of containment, escalation ladders, mutual assured destruction, counter-force and counter-value deterrence, stabilization and destabilization, strategic triads, first and second strike capabilities, and arms control - have been studied and applied to prevent nuclear war.

Vast military and civilian bureaucracies have been built to institute redundancy and real command and control to prevent rogue use of nuclear weapons.

A dozen nations working on nuclear weapons have been persuaded not to.  And two countries that had developed nuclear weapons - South Africa and Ukraine - were persuaded to give them up.

The Islamic Revolutionary regime in Iran has been working on developing nuclear weapons for 40 years. And they were - last month - finally on the cusp of having them.

The combined Israeli and United States bombing strikes on Iran's nuclear sites over the past three weeks have stopped all that. At least for now.

Iran must never get the bomb - because the unstable behavior of the regime in supporting terrorism and proxy guerilla groups makes them too bloodthirsty and violence-prone to trust with such vast destructive power.

One nuclear bomb in New York - brought in by ship, truck, or disguised commercial airliner - could kill 3 million people.  And blow the power grid and transportation links for 40 million people. 10 bombs would kill tens of millions and destroy life in America as we know it.

That is why the policy of destroying Iran's nuclear bomb factories - and quickly negotiating to dismantle Iran's remaining nuclear weapons infrastructure is the right one.

Both Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump deserve credit for having the courage to act, and the focus and strategy of using those strikes to move Iran away from nuclear weapons. 

Let's hope - and pray - that the strategy works and we - mankind - take a few steps back from the nuclear precipice.