Iran’s Place at the Table

Our buddy Ajmadinejad on “peaceful” nuclear power:

“…Ahmadinejad vowed Thursday that Iran won’t back away from uranium enrichment and said the world must treat Iran as a nuclear power.

“Our answer to those who are angry about Iran achieving the full nuclear fuel cycle is just one phrase. We say: Be angry at us and die of this anger,” the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

“We won’t hold talks with anyone about the right of the Iranian nation (to enrich uranium).”

And there you have it, summed up, Iran’s long term strategic policy: The world must treat Iran as a nuclear power, they must be afraid of Iran, and if Iran threatens you- you’d better do what they say or else.

Assuming rational actors, America has 50 years of dealing with foreign nuclear powers: massive retaliation, flexible response, détente, SALT, Star Wars, etc. Iran has zero years of experience doing this. Assuming an irrational actor and a rational actor in a nuclear equation hasn’t been attempted before on an international level, and this is a game where one mistake kills a whole lot of people. I’d be awful nervous if I was a mullah interested in self/national-preservation about now…