S. soil becomes a virtual certainty; already, renowned experts like Graham Allison (2004) consider this a matter of when not if. Ironically, given the complexities of the primary military threats of the Cold War, the U.S. now faces much greater risk of a devastating nuclear attack detonated in a U-Haul trailer crossing a Manhattan bridge, or one spanning the Potomac than one employing high-tech missile guidance systems launched by another global power (Allison, 2004).
Options for Addressing the Threat of a Nuclear Iran:
There is virtually no doubt that were the U.S. located within the range of Iranian missile technology, we would be as committed against allowing Iran to pursue its nuclear ambitions. In all likelihood, Israel's vulnerability in this regard is such that they will have no choice but to lead an attack designed to destroy the main nuclear facilities in the Iranian program whether or not the U.S. participates, sanctions, or provides direct assistance for such an attack.
However, unlike the Iraqi nuclear reactor destroyed by Israel in Natanz, the Iranian nuclear network comprise hundreds of individual facilities located underground in hardened bunkers and spread out throughout much of the country. It is, therefore, possible that without U.S. tactical assistance, Israel might eventually have only one option for preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons: namely, a pre-emptive nuclear strike of its own. Given the inevitable blame that the U.S. will share throughout the rest of the Muslim world for such an attack, even without direct U.S. involvement, it might behoove this country to provide assistance to enable Israel to destroy the threat using the latest U.S. conventional (i.e. non-nuclear) technology capable of achieving the objective without the unavoidable death of millions in Iran.
However in all likelihood, the geopolitical effect on the U.S. would be comparable either way, except that without U.S. assistance, there is substantially greater chances...
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As a matter of fact, that is precisely what bin Laden has pledged to do in an operation he calls the "American Hiroshima." Except that bin Laden's dream consists of detonating nuclear devices in six or seven major American cities like New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, Washington, and Los Angeles simultaneously. Allison explains that this is the real danger to the U.S. posed by Iranian intentions to start enriching uranium
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