The Path to Armageddon

© David Burton 2022

     The civilized world continues to ignore the truth emanating from Iran that it is rushing as rapidly as it can toward its goal of developing and possessing nuclear weapons of mass destruction. Instead, politicians worldwide for whatever their reasons, lie and obfuscate about Iran’s nuclear program. These politicians are: 1) blind to the most obvious of facts, or 2) indifferent to the consequences of atomic bombs being in the hands of Islamic extremists, or 3) anti-Semites wishing for the destruction of the Jewish State of Israel, or 4) eternal optimists who believe that irrational religious zealots can be convinced that the day has come when: “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them… 9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain . . .” (Isaiah 11:1-9)

     Ignoring the actualities and believing in the good fairy doesn’t cut it in the real world. Hoping for the best while disregarding the facts is neither realistic nor prudent. What is needed instead is wide open eyes, a clear mind and a strong will. Evil in the world must be vigorously opposed and ultimately eliminated. As history has taught us, capitulation to evil eventually causes misery, destruction and death. Weakness in opposing evil is unacceptable.

     With regard to the civilized world’s conduct in dealing with the fundamentalist religious zealots who today rule over the Islamic State of Iran, unless there is a rapid 180-degree turnaround, mankind will find that is rapidly proceeding down the path to Armageddon, i.e., to self-destruction.
     Iran has always publicly claimed that its nuclear aspirations are peaceful. The facts have always shown this to be a lie – and not even a believable lie.

     On 17 April 2022, a former Iranian lawmaker confirmed that Iran has always sought to produce nuclear weapons. Remarks by Ali Motahari, former deputy speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, contradict long-standing Iranian insistence that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes.
     “From the very beginning, when we entered the nuclear activity, our goal was to build a bomb and strengthen the deterrent forces, but we could not maintain the secrecy of this issue,” Motahari said.
     A Washington Post report the same week came out saying that leading nuclear nonproliferation experts warned that Iran is only one or two weeks away from having a sufficient amount of enriched uranium to fuel an atomic bomb.
     The controversial Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) of 2015 promised Iran economic incentives in exchange for limits on its nuclear program. Many of the world’s ignorant political leaders closed their eyes to the truth and stuck their heads in the sand. One who didn’t, former American president Donald Trump, withdrew the U.S. from the agreement in 2018.
     Here in the U.S., the ignorant, the uncaring and the blind, have long been pushing to negotiate a return to the nuclear agreement. Reaching such a meaningless agreement with Tehran has long been a key foreign policy goal of U.S. President Joe Biden, but international negotiations in Vienna had dimmed by March and April of 2022.
     While uranium needs to be only 3.67 percent pure to generate nuclear power, Iran has enriched its uranium stockpile to 60%, a degree of purity that no country without an atomic weapon has pursued. A nuclear bomb requires uranium to be enriched to 90% purity.
     Israel, the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia - the likely first targets of an Iranian atomic bomb - all oppose an American return to the JCPOA agreement of 2015.[1]

     Merely possessing nuclear weapons permits tyrants and despots to get their way by simply threating their use. EXAMPLE: “Amid the looming danger of World War 3, Vladimir Putin has openly brandished the threat of using nuclear weapons against the western powers.” (Ref. 2))

     Amid the Russia-Ukraine war, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin openly brandished the threat of using nuclear weapons against the western powers if they tried to stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The threat escalated concern among other countries as the use of nuclear weapons could lead to the most massive destruction the world has ever seen. Waving the nuclear sword in confrontation with the West, Putin said, "As for military affairs, even after the dissolution of the USSR and losing a considerable part of its capabilities, today’s Russia remains one of the most powerful nuclear states."
     "Moreover, it has a certain advantage in several cutting-edge weapons. In this context, there should be no doubt for anyone that any potential aggressor will face defeat and ominous consequences should he directly attack our country," he added.
     By merely suggesting a nuclear response against the western powers and Ukraine, Putin conveyed that the fighting in Ukraine might eventually take a dreadful turn, resulting in an atomic war between Washington and Moscow. Notably, since 1945, no country has used nuclear weapons, and in recent years, if a nuclear weapon was spoken of at all, it was usually in the context of stopping its proliferation to countries like North Korea and Iran.[2]

     The issue of Iran developing nuclear weapons is not new. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich addressed the problem way back in 2010. Here’s my summary of what he wrote about the Obama administration’s malfeasance at that time. And in case you don’t remember, our current president, Joseph Biden, was Barack Obama’s vice president then and a part of the Obama administration. Textual emphases are mine, not Newt Gingrich’s.

     The Obama administration has pursued a foreign policy that ranges from feckless to reckless, from pursuing fantasies like a global nuclear summit to acts of genuine irresponsibility.
     But of all the national security imperatives facing the administration, none is more critical than preventing Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, from developing nuclear weapons.
     Obama pledged during the 2008 presidential campaign to negotiate with Iran without preconditions, a naive and utopian promise that has yielded predictably disappointing results.
     Obama hoped for Iran to voluntarily relinquish its nuclear program — even as Tehran boasted about its uranium enrichment progress. Today, the story is much the same. The time for terminating Iran’s nuclear weapons development program has long passed!
     For years, the Obama administration chased a false chimera of U.N. sanctions. It did so while Iran crept ever closer to possessing a nuclear weapon. Back then, Defense Secretary Robert Gates sent a memo to the president’s national security team warning that the administration had no effective policy for dealing with Iran achieving nuclear capability. The question still is: does the present Democratic administration have an effective policy for dealing with Iran achieving nuclear capability? The answer appears to be a resounding: IT ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT!
     In 2010, Gingrich wrote: “For the president to be so ill prepared for what nearly everyone agrees to be the greatest threat facing the region - and the world - is unacceptable.” In 2022, the same can be written about the current president.
     If (This should likely by “When” and not “If”.) Iran develops a nuclear weapon, and Washington does nothing to stop them, the other nations in the Middle East will be presented with a very clear and very real threat - and will have gotten the message that the United States will do nothing to help.
     Is there any doubt that their reaction will be to develop their own nuclear-weapons capabilities, thrusting the world’s most dangerous region into a full-blown nuclear arms race?
     Putting the crisis off can only make things worse. Washington’s and the rest of the world’s options rapidly and dangerously are dwindling as Iran gets closer to making its first bomb.
     Let’s be clear. Every day the current American administration and the rest of the civilized world fail to act, Iran takes another step closer to developing a nuclear weapon. Allowing mad men to develop and possess nuclear weapons is another step closer to a nuclear Armageddon.[3]

     In addition to Iran, there are other paths leading to Armageddon. North Korea’s hereditary dictator, KIM Jong-un, could detonate a nuclear bomb for the first time in five years to grab Joe Biden's attention after being "ignored" by the US president, experts warned in January of 2022 as fears mounted over the rogue state's nuclear plans.
     The petulant Kim Jong-un was getting increasingly frustrated at the lack of attention from US President Joe Biden who has not followed up Trump's summit diplomacy with Kim. It was suggested that the trigger-happy tyrant could soon go for a nuclear test - five years after North Korea conducted by far its largest and most terrifying nuke test to date.
     Dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang remains stalled, and the country is under multiple sets of international sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
     The last North Korean atomic bomb test in 2017 was seen as a direct challenge to Trump, who had vowed to stop North Korea developing nuclear weapons that could threaten the United States. Kim later agreed to a "complete denuclearization" of the Korean Peninsula after a summit with Donald Trump in June 2018.
     But the rogue state has not stopped its nuclear activities. In March of 2021, satellite photos revealed new activity at the site where its nuclear weapons are stockpiled. At the same time, North Korea has refused to respond to US appeals for talks, saying that America's attempts for dialogue are pointless without more changes to "hostile policies" such as military drills and sanctions.[4]

     The nuclear threat from mainland China remains. A report claims that Beijing is ‘seriously’ concerned about the threat posed by the US. This has led to the Chinese leadership reconsidering its nuclear options.
     China is reported to be expanding its nuclear arsenal amid an alleged ‘threat’ from the US according to the Wall Street Journal. According to the report, Beijing had earlier made a strategic decision to beef up the country’s nuclear deterrence ahead of the ongoing Russia Ukraine war.
     Earlier, China and the United States had an exchange over Taiwan. With the latest events in Europe, as well as the increasingly confrontational rhetoric between Beijing and Washington over Taiwan, China had beefed up its nuclear arsenal.
     Meanwhile, the report also cited satellite imagery of more than 100 suspected missile silos in one of China’s western regions. The imagery was from an area, where increased activity had been detected in the recent past. The report also claimed that the Chinese facilities could host long-range DF-41 missiles, that can carry a nuclear warhead and is capable of reaching the US mainland. It is noteworthy that China does not publish any details of its nuclear arsenal and has refused to engage in nuclear weapon control talks with the US in the past.[5]

     It might seem wild to think modern human civilization as we know could be wiped out in an instant. But during the Cold War era, from shortly after the end of the Second World War in 1945 until the fall of communism in Europe in the early 1990s, this was an omnipresent threat.
     The world’s great superpowers of the time, the United States and the Soviet Union, were locked in a decades-long stalemate pitting democratic countries against dictatorial and authoritarian regimes. Those superpowers and their respective allies amassed impressive arsenals of nuclear arms, ready to be used at any time. But whoever pulled the trigger first would invariably set off a response from the other side. The result would be bad news for everyone.
     This guiding principle, known as Mutually Assured Destruction – MAD - helped to enforce the uneasy, seemingly fragile global peace in the latter half of the 20th century.
     One of the greatest ironies of the modern age was that the existence of massively destructive nuclear arms was used prevent their actual use by any reasonable nation.
     This arrangement worked because it was assumed that no national government or world leader would be crazy enough to launch a nuclear war, for fear of the widespread destruction this would inflict on all parties involved. It also assumed the leaders of those countries who had endowed themselves with nuclear weapons would act in a rational, considered manner.
     With the Cold War supposedly relegated to the history books, the idea of mutually assured destruction was believed to still hold true. Now that concept is being sorely tested by the leader of the Russian nation and other rogue leaders of belligerent, dictatorial and authoritarian regimes.
     Iran and North Korea fall squarely in that category. Those two countries continue to pursue the creation of nuclear weapons despite the many years of punishing economic sanctions this has entailed for those nations and their citizens.
     Their authoritarian leaders, lusting after a viable nuclear arsenal, have been OK with the idea of letting their people suffer. While North Korea has appeared receptive to the idea of disarmament, it has been content to grow its small collection of atomic weapons, whatever the economic cost. Iran has been working on the development of the atomic bomb while hoodwinking the rest of the world into believing that it would live up to a non-proliferation agreement
     In all cases to date, economic sanctions have failed as a deterrent to nuclear proliferation.
     Now, with Russia’s war against Ukraine, the entire world faces the greatest threat to global peace in decades. Not only is the concept of mutually assured destruction being pushed to its limits, it is being outright abused. Vladimir Putin has decided to use Russia’s nuclear arsenal not just as a deterrent to additional armed conflict but as blackmail against an even more robust reaction to its aggression toward its neighbor, Ukraine.
     Indeed, the world’s leaders have said that their response to the naked Russian aggression must be crafted in such a way to avoid triggering a devastating global war.      This is an absolutely understandable and defensible position to take, the world’s careful and considered reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could well end up egging on despots who wish to acquire or develop nuclear weapons of their own.
     If the risk is merely that of frozen bank accounts and suspended economic trade, other unhinged leaders may well be tempted to take the gamble, tantalized by the perceived reward of being allowed to do as they damn well please under the threat of unleashing a nuclear Armageddon.
     Such an outcome is quite highly undesirable since it would edge the world closer to more nuclear blackmail and the increased possibility of actual mutually assured destruction.[6]

     At some point along the path to Armageddon, the planet’s civilized people must stop the madness and stand up to the megalomaniacs of the world. The nuclear blackmail must be stopped. Civilized peoples cannot tolerate the continued threat posed by a handful of unhinged despots.

     The civilized world can start to put end to this nuclear blackmail and halt its paving of the path to Armageddon by standing up, once and for all, to the Ayatollahs of Iran. The rational nations of the world can insist that Iran open up all its nuclear facilities to unhindered, unannounced and frequent inspections by the U.N. Atomic Energy Commission (UNAEC). The civilized world can also require Iran to destroy all ballistic missiles that it possesses. In doing this, the civilized nations of the world must set a firm date for compliance with the threat of military action against Iran should that nation fail to comply with those demands. Hesitation is no longer acceptable.

     Hopefully, such action will convey a strong message to the other bad actors in the world. It should at least provide a strong incentive to carefully reconsider any future rash actions on their part. Bullies do not respect hesitancy, indecisiveness and cowardice. What international bullies do however understand is the willingness of those threatened to forcefully resist being threatened and bullied!

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References:

1. Former Iranian MP confirms Tehran seeks nuclear weapons, David Hellerman, World Israel News, 25 April 2022.
2. Putin Threatens To Use Nuclear Weapons If West Tries To Stop Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine, Amrit Burman, Republic World, 25 February 2022.
3. Iran's nuke program must be stopped, Newt Gingrich, POLITICO, 19 May 2010.
4. LITTLE ROCKET MAN Kim Jong-un ‘could detonate nuke bomb for first time in 5 years to grab Biden’s attention after being ignored’, Imogen Braddick, The U.S. Sun, 12 January 2022.
5. China Expands Nuclear Arsenal Amid ‘US Threat’, War In Ukraine, Vishnu V V, Republic World, 11 April 2022.
6. As world tries to solve crisis in Ukraine, it faces wave of nuclear blackmaile, Ricky Leong, CALGARY SUN,
   26 April 2022.