The New Player in Missile Defense

When the US President gave his speech on a Missile Defense Review, he talked more about Iran than North Korea.  In my day in missile defense, North Korea was the main concern.  China was able to sit back and watch while North Korea threatened nuclear attack on Guam or Hawaii, though they probably were bluffing in those days.  Only the Chinese made outright threats to detonate a nuclear weapon over Los Angeles, but even then they backed off of that threat days after it was made.  Iran was only an after thought.

So, while a small part of the EU continues to think the Iran nuclear agreement is a good idea, Iran goes on with booster testing and, more likely, weapons too.  This is not likely to go well if the Iranians get down the road towards a real nuclear weapon.  The Israelis have not shied from attacks on Iran's capabilities if they got far enough along.  In June 1981, Israel bombed the Osirak nuclear reactor being built for Iraq by French and Italian contractors.  That bombing was announced, and not covert.   However, that was the second bombing attack on the facility.  The first, allegedly encouraged by the Israelis, took place 30 September 1980, during the Iran-Iraq War, with two aircraft the Israelis said were Iranian F-4 jets.   On 6 September 2007, the Israelis bombed the nuclear facility at Al-Kubar in eastern Syria.  That was not acknowledged until last year.  It remained a secret for all that time.  They know how to keep a secret.

Worried about Iran?  We are.  Israel is.  How about Europe?  Yes, coming around, but slowly.

Shipler, David K, Israeli Jets Destroy Iraqi Atomic Reactor;  Attack Condemned by U.S. and Arab Nations, The New York Times, 9 June 1981, https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/09/world/israeli-jets-destroy-iraqi-atomic-reactor-attack-condemned-us-arab-nations.html.

  Pirseyedi, Bobi, Arms Control and Iranian Foreign Policy, (Routeledge: New York, New York) 2013, page 120.