agreed; for the most part:
here is an interesting perspective.
July 23, 2006
Iranian Army would be well advised to mutiny
Filed under: Front Page, Iran, Hezbollah
before Hezbollah uses Iranian radiological weapons
by Bill Levinson
If Iran is arming Hezbollah with radiological weapons– “dirty” bombs consisting of conventional explosives surrounded by nuclear waste– then Iran’s military would be well advised to mutiny before Hezbollah uses those weapons on anyone. Iran’s enlisted men and officers have wives, children, parents, brothers, and sisters whose lives Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s megalomaniac antics are putting at risk.
It is almost a given under international law that someone who knowingly and willfully arms a third party (such as a terrorist organization) with a weapon of mass destruction shares that third party’s guilt if the weapon is actually used. In other words, a “dirty bomb” attack by Hezbollah would be essentially the same thing as a “dirty bomb” attack by Iran itself, and would justify a nuclear response by Israel. It is generally believed that Israel possess nuclear weapons and, should Hezbollah use an Iranian WMD to murder Israelis, Israel would be 100 percent within its rights to drop nuclear bombs on Tehran and Iran’s other major cities. If Hezbollah were to transfer such a weapon to Al Qaida and said weapon were used on the United States, let’s just say that one Trident ballistic missile can service up to seven Iranian cities. The blast radius of a 335-kiloton warhead (and a Trident carries seven of them) is 2.5 times that of the bombs that wrecked Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Millions of Iranians would be killed outright and millions of others could die from disease and privation from the destruction of Iran’s infrastructure. Most of them would not deserve it but neither did most of the seven million Germans whom the Allies had to kill to break the cycle of violence that another megalomaniac dictator began in 1939.
The Iranian Army should remember that its principal duty is to the people and country of Iran, not to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They should also remember the story– it may only be a rumor but it makes sense– in which senior American officers told their people to refuse Richard Nixon’s orders were he to try to do anything irrational with our own country’s nuclear arsenal while he was facing impeachment. Comparing Nixon to Ahmadinejad is of course like comparing a shoplifter to a serial killer like Ted Bundy or John Wayne Gacy.
Iranian soldiers and officers should also remember what happened to Germany because the German Army began hailing Hitler (a charismatic individual) instead of Deutchland. When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad endangers the entire nation of Iran to indulge his personal megalomaniac ambitions, he becomes a traitor to his own country and can rightfully be deposed by the country’s citizens and Armed Forces.
If Hezbollah does use a radiological weapon on Israel but Iran’s army has beforehand mutinied and overthrown Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Israeli government would probably not hold the Iranian people accountable no matter how much damage Hezbollah caused. If, on the other hand, the Iranian Army stands behind this individual, than Israel would indeed be within its rights to hold the nation of Iran collectively responsible for the equivalent of a nuclear attack |
