Iran: Our Next Crisis? (page 2 of 5)

A More Dangerous World

What might Iranians do if they add nukes to their arsenal? They could make the world far more dangerous, though probably not in the ways some fear. There's little reason to think Iran would launch a nuclear strike out of the blue at Israel, at the Saudi oil fields, at Europe, or at some other key enemy target, because the retaliation from the West would be crushing. It's also unlikely that the Iranians would give these weapons to terrorists. The regime knows that terrorist groups are impossible to trust or control, and could use those weapons on targets not of Tehran's choosing.

But once Iran went nuclear, it could be bold in other ways, knowing no country would dare retaliate for anything short of a full-scale military attack. One way it could flex muscle would be to step up the terrorism it's long used against us -- acts that include bombing our embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, and the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers apartment buildings in Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 U.S. airmen.

Iran could also try to coerce the United States and other nations by threatening the flow of Persian Gulf oil through the Strait of Hormuz, though Tehran's dependence on oil exports might make this move too risky for the regime.

So what should the United States and its key partners do? There are only a few viable options and, in my view, only one that really makes sense.

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• Iran: Who's Got the Power?
• An overview of the priorities influencing Iran's faction leaders.
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• What Iranians Believe
• Our poll results offer some surprising and unsettling findings.
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• History of U.S. - Iran Relations
• A timeline of the nation's involvement with Iran.
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• How to Win in Iraq
• Two Senators give their plans for victory.
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• Can Three Become One?
• A look at the divided factions of the Middle East.
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• Complete Iran Poll Results
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