Iranian Nukes? So what?

An article by Abolghasem Bayyenat has been making the rounds on liberal and anti-war blogs, including of course the KOS kids, claiming that a nuclear armed Iran poses no threat to anyone. He tries to argue that a pragmatic Iran would be deterred by the MAD policy that kept the United States and the Soviet Union from blowing each other up during the cold war. Some of his arguments however are, shall we say, rather stretched.

First, it would be a mistake to think that the character of the Iranian government has remained unchanged since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. In fact, the Islamic Republic has lost much of its revolutionary and ideological fervor over the past two decades, and its government has mellowed considerably.

Hanging a young girl for self defense against rape or giving a 14 year old 85 lashes (which killed him) for breaking his fast during Ramadan doesn't seem very mellow. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has lost none of his zeal.

It has contributed significantly to the development of democratic processes in post-conflict Afghanistan and Iraq

It has also contributed to the attempts to destroy democratic Afghanistan and Iraq.

Third, while it would be controversial to argue from a religious perspective against possessing nuclear weapons for deterrent purposes, given the indiscriminate destructive nature of nuclear weapons, any nuclear attack against civilian population centers would definitely be against the ethical teachings of Islam.

Firing Kassam rockets at civilian population centers however is apparently not. Keep in mind that Hamas is Tehran's creature, which brings me to the most outrageous statement in the article.

Fourth, there are no credible grounds to fear that Iran might arm terrorist groups with nuclear weapons to attack Western nations. Itself a longtime victim of terrorist attacks, Iran should feel no sympathy with terrorist groups who disapprove of its Shi'ite and Persian identity and whom it blasts for tarnishing the image of Islam through violent extremism.

Seeing how Iran is the largest sponsor of terrorism in the world one has to admire the audacity of Mr. Bayyenat’s last statement. Even knowing that Abolghasem Bayyenat is a trade representative for Iran working to get his government into the WTO, such a statement would make Baghdad Bob blush. While the KOS kids may believe this stuff, (they are actually considering taking up Bin Laden’s olive branch BTW), the scary thing is that some in the State Department echo this sentiment thinking that a nuclear armed Iran can be contained.