Tobin: Iran Anticipates the Day After Nuclear Test

Jonathan S. Tobin
Commentary/Contentions
10 June '11

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/06/10/iran-anticipates-the-day-after-nuclear-test/

Though the evidence that Iran is working on building a nuclear bomb is overwhelming, apologists for the Islamist regime have accepted its cover story that their program is only aimed at peaceful civil uses of the technology. But apparently a website run by the country’s Revolutionary Guard deviated from the party line on April 24.

The Guardian’s security blog reports that on that date Gerdab, the Guard’s website ran a piece anticipating what the day after the successful explosion of an Iranian bomb would be like. The Guardian translation of the piece fairly bubbles with excitement about the happiness in Iran and the “shock and despair” in Israel. The point of the piece is to show that life will go on normally in Iran but that people there will have a “sparkle” in their eyes.

Lest anyone think the hypothetical piece is pure science fiction, the news about the article came the same week that Iran announced that it would triple their production of enriched uranium.

The notion of normal life in post-nuclear Iran ought to focus the attention of those in the West on the consequences of allowing Tehran to fulfill its ambitions. The greatest danger of a nuclear Iran is not so much the possibility of them actually launching a strike at Israel, though that horrifying scenario can’t be discounted. Rather, it is that the existence of this “Shia Bomb” as the Guard article calls it, would make Iran a regional superpower. It would also mean that Iran’s terrorist allies; the shaky Assad regime in Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas would suddenly have a nuclear umbrella protecting them. Such a development would give the despot of Damascus and the terrorist groups on Israel’s borders the ability to operate with impunity. That means the “normal” day after the announcement of an Iranian bomb would be one that would bring untold dangers both to Israel and to the West.

It isn’t clear what the regime’s motivation was in running such a piece in a publication that the Guardian informs us is normally devoted to ensuring conformity with the regime on the web and identifying and threatening independent bloggers. Perhaps it was just a momentary lapse. It might also have been intended as a warning to the international community to back down on sanctions because of the consequences of angering a future nuclear power. Either way it ought to concentrate minds in Washington and elsewhere in the West.

As the International Atomic Energy Agency has recently said, there is little doubt about Iran’s intentions. President Obama has pledged that he will not allow Iran to gain nuclear weapons. But the Iranians are not any more impressed by Obama’s sanctions campaign than they were by his efforts to “engage” them. The question remains whether Obama and the West will do what needs to be done in order to ensure that the day the Islamists anticipate never dawns.

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