ArcaMax

The Israel-Iran War Over Nuclear Weapons could end with a nuclear blast. Why have a reluctant Washington send two American B-2 stealth bombers each dropping a 30,000-pound (15-ton) Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) conventional bomb destroy Iran's buried Fordow uranium enrichment facility?

Israel has nuclear weapons, everyone knows that. One well-placed Israeli nuke -- say, 5 kilotons? -- could penetrate and shatter Fordow, and, with a seismic shudder and internal structural collapse, end the ayatollah dictatorship's 35-year pursuit of nuclear munitions.

Is this a plausible scenario?

A plausible military scenario requires the technical capability to execute the central mission. Israel has the nuclear capability and the delivery systems (likely aircraft). The U.S. has the conventional weapon capability and delivery system (B-2). Israel has also achieved air superiority over Iran -- combat aircraft can fly almost anywhere.

War, however, is politics using violence. That's what Carl von Clausewitz thought. The usual interpretation: Political goals should direct and restrain violent capabilities.

Oh, but those human beings who just know they are on a glorious mission of conquest, and maybe God or the gods or history or Karl Marx is on their side!

Ayatollah Iran exemplifies this Divine Conqueror delusion. Iran calls little Israel a "one bomb state." The Tehran quip states a goal, one with violent direction. If Iran had a nuclear weapon, the Islamic revolutionary regime's destructive record of war, terror and crimes against humanity tells sane humans an unrestrained megalomaniacal ayatollah would target Tel Aviv for nuclear immolation.

Iran doesn't have nuclear weapons -- not yet. If they had one, it would have been used in the last five days.

However, as long as Fordow exists, the ayatollahs can continue to enrich uranium to weapons-grade, and, when this fracas ends, begin a new nuclear weapons quest.

Donald Trump wanted to close Fordow with a deal, a nonviolent, diplomatic and very likely economic deal. Some degree of something for everybody. The ayatollahs stalled, lied, finally said no way. It's their way or ... not the highway, their way of the graveyard.

Result of the no deal: Fordow must be destroyed.

The fact Israel hasn't nuked Fordow is a definitive statement about Israeli national values, current intentions and positive future goals. Put simply, Israel stands with Earth's constructive nations. Enrich your wallets, not your nuclear weapons. Let's make a deal.

Ayatollah Iran is definitely an imperialist destructive nation that since Oct. 7, 2023, has demonstrated it believes it can act without restraint.

Self-restraining Israel knows an Israeli nuclear strike on Fordow could have disastrous global political effects -- "would" might be the more appropriate verb, but the mullah regime is despised almost everywhere -- Ivy League campuses being a blatant exception.

Pop a nuke, heaven freezes and hell unleashes -- that's the fear. No one sane human on this planet wants a nuclear weapon tested above ground, much less used in anger. In their recent war, India and Pakistan kept their nuclear weapons holstered. An obvious reason: They share a common border. Rogue Russia threatens nuclear attacks on Ukraine, but even war criminal and mass murderer Vladimir Putin knows he wouldn't survive the post-strike retaliation -- from his own people, if not NATO. North Korea? Unless he fled to Switzerland, Kim Jong Un knows he'd be debris.

But. But Fordow must be destroyed.

Or the Iranian ayatollah regime toppled -- let the government of Free Iran sells Fordow for parts.

In the past three days, I've heard a couple of cable TV brains suggest destroying Iran's nuclear weapons program could/would promote Iranian regime change. Why? Loss of face. It's another demonstration of regime powerlessness. The ayatollahs tout the program as a prestige endeavor, one that will make Iran a global power like ancient Persia! That would make Fordow's destruction a demonstration of regime hopelessness.

Erasing Fordow might encourage regime change, but who knows. However, destroying it would promote peaceful relations from Turkmenistan to Syria to the Gulf Arab states to Egypt. NATO member Turkey would smile. No ayatollah bomb for a decade or two, if ever.

So. The preceding paragraphs state the military, political and moral case for Trump sending two MOP-armed B-2s to destroy Fordow. Two, why not four bombers with four bombs? As the special ops guys say, double tap (quadruple tap in this case) to make sure.

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To find out more about Austin Bay and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

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