The fulcrum of the 21st century: Israel and the Mid East
The Wall Street Journal editorial on January 13, 2012 “The Intrigues of Persia” says in its concluding paragraph, “Much of the world wants to believe that force won’t be necessary to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions . . .” It is clear from that editorial, as well as numerous other editorials that the editorial writer does not share that belief. The Journal wants a war. OK, a lot of conservatives, particularly Evangelicals, I assume, feel the same way.
The first interesting issue is, “Why is such a dramatic step required?” The editorial answer is, “Nothing else has worked.” The piece recounts some of the prior steps:
-The assassination of at least 5 senior nuclear scientists presumably by the U.S. or Israel.
-Diplomacy has allowed the Iranians to play for time.
-Sanctions have not been severe enough (although the editorial has some hope for more recent sanctions).
-Covert actions to include sophisticated computer worms and an explosion at a missile factory.
Despite every effort imaginable; despite the most capable military engineering in the world today, despite the resources of the biggest economy in the world today and despite a very large intelligent population which the American leadership can count on to support aggressive “robust” action the conclusion the editorial reaches is:
“Tehran is closer than ever to a bomb.”
Now, readers of this blog will not be surprised to read this. Nuclear weapons are an IQ test. The best algebra 15 year old algebra student among 60 or 70 million Iranians is very good in algebra class.
He has to be in algebra class, and that was accomplished in the last two generations. What has been accomplished was predictable.
Well, what should be done? So America has yet another war in the same general area: What is the downside?
The downside as the Mid East takes up more and more space is that what is developing in China is inevitably put on the back burner. The Important 50 years of the Nuclear Age is behind us. Something has been established: Nuclear weapons are scores on an IQ test, the U.S. does not have engineers that are so much smarter than engineers in China and Russia (and maybe North Korea and Iran?) that the U.S. will be infinitely safe while leaving Russia and China infinitely vulnerable.
If the long term vulnerability of the U.S. moves to labs in China it is a mistake to lose that focus. The fulcrum of the nuclear weapons story will inevitably move to China: THE STORY of the twenty-first century.
