ABSTRACT

The Iranians never cease denying that they intend to build a nuclear arsenal, and yet in the same breath they openly tell us what they intend to do with it. Their first priority, as repeatedly and unequivocally announced by their president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is to "wipe Israel off the map", a feat that could not be accomplished by conventional weapons alone. In the case of Ahmadinejad, the pretense takes the form of claiming that Iran is building nuclear facilities only for peaceful purposes and not for the production of bombs. The opponents of bombing–not just the usual suspects but many both here and in Israel who have no illusions about the nature and intentions and potential capabilities of the Iranian regime–disagree that it might end in the overthrow of the mullocracy. The Security Studies Program at MIT concludes that the Israeli Air Force "now possesses the capability to destroy even well-hardened targets in Iran with some degree of confidence".