The Partnership: Five Cold Warriors and Their Quest to Ban the Bomb”<\/a>, made comments mostly consistent with recent statements coming from the Obama administration, which boil down to a good-cop bad-cop strategy where international economic sanctions against Iran are promoted as a means to both stop Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program and also stave off a dangerous Israeli military attack.<\/p>\nA few complicating issues were not addressed in the short time available: 1) Does the legacy of false W.M.D. claims that were used to justify the Iraq war weaken the credibility of United State as a broker in the Iran situation, possibly impacting cooperation from China and Russia? 2) What would the environmental consequences and political precedent be of an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear reactor and other nuclear facilities? Would radioactivity be released and how dangerous would this be to Iran and surrounding regions? 3) Does de facto acceptance of Israel’s nuclear arsenal weaken the U.S. case against Iranian nuclear weapons? 4) Could at attack on Iran bring about the very thing it would purport to avoid? Might nuclear weapons be used in an attempt to either destroy hardened targets, or as a punitive response if Iran responded unpredictably or against civilians outside of Iran?<\/p>\n
![\"Mark](\"\/pics2012\/nuclearchessboard\/StageAudience_6840.jpg\")
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