This man should not be allowed near nuclear weapons!

[kandrathe]

Sure, but the USSR was one of those countries - and yet, nuclear deterrence worked just fine against them. Now, they don't believe in an afterlife per se, so maybe that makes some difference.

I'm still betting that, however ruthless the leadership may get, they are unlikely to become genuinely suicidal, especially when faced with the prospect of their entire civilization being purged with nuclear fire.

Yeah, I lived through some of the worst of that time (MAD), and it is a bit off-putting to know that you are defended from annihilation only by your own willingness to commit murder suicide. It's like two guys with pistols and candles in a gasoline filled room. I wonder how Europe would change their tune if Iran test fired a missile into the North Sea.

I really don't think the world of peace loving nations wants to have that type of relationship with Iran, where every day we remind them (and they us) how willing we are to totally annihilate them. It just takes one mistake, or one person just crazy enough to go a step too far. The Cold War was brutal, ugly, and expensive. Now, I'm a peace loving person, but I'd rather we just outright destroyed these 'wannabes' now rather than go through the next twenty to thirty years in another nuclear arms race.