Iran and MAD

Middle East guru Bernard Lewis has a must read article in today's WSJ that lays out why we cannot depend on the Cold War doctrine of mutual assured destruction (MAD) to deter Iran from using nuclear weapons if they do acquire them. Iran’s leaders have an apocalyptic view of the world and believe that death at the hands of infidels is a pathway to heaven.

I found this section of Lewis’s piece particularly haunting:

A passage from the Ayatollah Khomeini, quoted in an 11^th-grade Iranian schoolbook, is revealing. "I am decisively announcing to the whole world that if the world devourers [i.e., the infidel powers] wish to stand against our religion, we will stand against their whole world and will not cease until the annihilation of all of them. Either we all become free, or we will go to the greater freedom which is martyrdom. Either we shake one another’s hands in the joy of the victory of Islam in the world, or all of us will turn to eternal life and martyrdom. In both cases, victory and success are ours.”

It is best to view Iran’s leaders as suicide bombers, only awash in oil money, and with a massive military. And right now, the only thing standing in the way of their obtaining nuclear weapons is the U.N. Security Council. Scary.