Waltz article

Submitted by Gil Bindelglas (United States), Jun 23, 2012 at 14:51

Mr. Pipes:

It seems this might be a great opportunity for you to write to Foreign Affairs refuting Waltz' claims.

As you allude, it is hard to substantiate the claim that Israel's acquisition of nuclear weapons in the 1960s is the root cause of instability in the region. Indeed, most (if not all) of the Arab-Israeli wars over the past four decades were initiated by Arab countries or Arag terror organizations. More significantly, deaths in the region from conflicts not involving Israel significantly outnumbers those from Arab-Israeli conflict. Sunni-Shiite and Arab-Persian conflicts are the true sources of instability in the region. Which begs the question: Would a nuclear Iran trigger a new arms race in the region - putting Egypt and the Gulf countries on a fast track to develop their own WMD arsenals.

Finally, Waltz' comparison of Iran to Mao's China completely ignores the messianic component of the current Iranian leadership. Mutually Assured Destruction loses its impact when such destruction and death is glorified by the reward of 72-virgins.

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