Nuclear Holocaust.

This is coolbert:

"Nuclear holocaust: A risk too big even for martyrs?"

This is a recent headline from an article in the International Herald Tribune.

[my comments in bold.]

It seems, so the author seems to feel, that it is not ONLY the Israeli and Americans that are concerned with Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon.

So are the various Sunni Arabs that inhabit the Middle East.

To many, this may appear strange. That anyone can even come close to challenging the Israeli, I would have thought, would have been welcomed by the Arab world.

NOT SO??!!

The fear is that Iranian acquisition of a nuclear weapon [bound to happen now, so it seems], will set off some uncontrollable and cataclysmic event that will benefit no one and result in devastation of untold proportions.

"The anti-Israel statements of the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, coupled with Iran's support for Hezbollah and Hamas, might lead you to think that the Arab states would welcome Iran's nuclear program."

"A nuclear Iran means, at the very least, a realignment of power dynamics in the Persian Gulf."

"They also seem to be worried that the Iranians might actually use nuclear weapons if they get them."

[you would think that if anyone would understand the Iranian Shia, it would be the Arab Sunni of the Middle East. If they are worred about use of the bomb, well, surely the U.S. is justified in it's concern too!!]

"it was still possible to avoid asking the awkward question of whether there was something distinctive about Islamic belief or practice that made possession of nuclear technology especially worrisome. Most observers assumed that Islamic states could be deterred from using nuclear force just like other states: by the threat of massive retaliation."

[many in the West DO SEE the Iranian as being a wild-eyed fanatic who IS NOT ONLY HOPEFUL IN GETTING ATOMIC WEAPONS, BUT QUITE WILLING AND EVEN WANTING TO USE THEM!! THIS IS NOT A RARE SENTIMENT!!]

"Suicide bombing has become the archetype of Muslim violence - not just to frightened Westerners but also to Muslims themselves."

[this has become the weapon of choice for the Muslim, so it appears to the westerner. And to the Muslim now too?? Suicide bombing is a reflection of WEAKNESS!! Conventional methods do not work. Other means must be used. Such as suicide bombing!!]

"What makes suicide bombing especially relevant to the nuclear question is that, by design, it unsettles the theory of deterrence."

[during the Cold War, deterrence was the cornerstone of policy. NO ONE would dare to use nuclear weapons as the fear of the consequences was so great. Rational thinking communists and American both thought that way.]

"Religious thinkers, on the other hand, believe almost by definition that there is something in heaven greater than government here on earth. Under the right circumstances, they might sacrifice lives - including their own - to serve the divine will as they interpret it."

"This interpretation is not very convincing in historical terms: martyrdom classically meant that another person killed the Muslim warrior, not that he pushed the button himself."

[the word martyrdom to the Christian means something TOTALLY at odds with what it means to the Muslim. A Christian dies for their faith, but NOT killing others in the process.]

"Muslims fighting the jihad may not inflict disproportionately more harm on the enemy than the enemy has inflicted on them. That raises the question of the extent of American guilt. "Some Brothers have added up the number of Muslims killed directly or indirectly by [American] weapons and come up with a figure of nearly ten million," the treatise states. This total, Fahd concludes, would authorize the use of weapons of mass destruction to kill 10 million Americans."

[the statements of the right hand man of Osama, Zawahiri, that, "4 1/2 million Americans must be killed to bring the Amriki to their knees is undoubtedly based upon similar such calculations!!]

"If the leaders of Iran or some future leaders of a radicalized, nuclear Saudi Arabia shared the aspiration to martyrdom of so many young jihadis around the world, might they be prepared to attack Israel or the United States, even if the inevitable result were the martyrdom of their entire people?"

[I do not see Saudi EVER becoming a nuclear power. Too long a process and to difficult except for the most determined of nations. I just don't think they have enough educated people and the facilities to embark on such a program.]

"The answer depends to a large degree on whether you consider Islam susceptible to the kind of apocalyptic, millennial thought that might lead whole peoples, rather than just individuals, into suicidal behavior."

"With respect to Shiite eschatology, there is greater reason for concern."

[this is the type of thing that prompted Bernard Lewis to issue his warning about August 22. It did not happen [nuclear attack], but the thinking was that it might. All of Islam is so foreign and unique to the westerner. Shia Islam is even MORE so!!]

Read the whole thing. A very good article.

coolbert.