Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Remind me. Why Are We So Obsessed with Iran's Phantom Nuclear Weapons Programme?



Pretty much any country with a reasonable industrial base is capable of producing nuclear warheads.  It's not that hard once you figure out how to produce weapons-grade uranium or plutonium.

Contrary to the dark fantasies rattling around in Benjamin Netanyahu's mind, even the Mossad knows that Iran has no weapons-grade nuclear refining underway.

It makes you wonder why Netanyahu didn't spare some time in his recent address to the US Congress to mention a nation that presents a real nuclear threat to Israel, Pakistan.  Not only does Pakistan sport a dandy arsenal of nuclear warheads, it has the delivery systems capable of reaching out and touching Tel Aviv if and when it chooses.  Add to that intelligence suggesting that radical Islamist fundamentalists have a place high in Pakistan's military leadership and concerns that the country's arsenal is anything but secure from terrorists and you might think that Iran wouldn't be Israel's greatest worry.

Pakistan successfully launched the latest version of an indigenously developed nuclear-capable cruise missile on Monday, The Washington Post reports.

The Shaheen-III missile has a maximum range of up to 1,700 miles, according to members of the Pakistani military. Depending upon the missile's placement, Pakistan would be capable of carrying out a nuclear strike from Israel in the West to Kazakhstan in the north and Burma in the east.

Launched from Gwadar in Pakistan's southwest, the new cruise missile could just make it to Tel Aviv.  Pakistan, by the way, has no restriction on first use of nuclear weapons.



 

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