Obama or Romney? - St Paul's High School

Volume 66, Issue 2 October 31, 2012Student VoiceRising Tension in Israel-Iran ConflictOn nuclear weapons and potential military actionJames GrimesSenior ContributorWith the U.S. Presidentialelections looming large on thehorizon, a major topic of debateis the escalating crisis betweenIsrael and Iran, specifically thecrisis surrounding Iran’s shadowy‘Nuclear Program’. The Israelishave grabbed world headlines withtheir threats of a pre-emptive strikeshould the Iranians take their nucleard e v e l o p m e n t sany further, andthe Iranians haveresponded with amixture of threats,accusations ofwestern bias, andblatant denial.But questionsstill surroundthis affair: Is Iranindeed developingNuclear weapons;Can and will theIsraelis makegood their threatsof a pre-emptivestrike; and howwill the Americansrespond in thissituation?The history of Iran’s NuclearProgram goes back to the 1950’s,as part of cooperation betweenthe United States government andthe Shah of Iran, the Americanemplaced dictator of that country.When the Shah’s regime was toppledin the 1979 Revolution, AyatollahKhomeini ordered all nucleardevelopment discontinued, asnuclear weapons were prohibited byIslamic Law. However, this changedfollowing the brutal Iran-Iraq Warof the 1980’s, which saw the useof both World War I-era chemicalweapons and the first recorded usesof deadly Nerve Gas in warfare. Theuse of such destructive weaponslead to a reappraisal of nucleararms by the Iranian government,and nuclear development began inearnest following the Ayatollah’sdeath in 1989.On the surface at least,Iran’s Nuclear Developmentprogram seemed geared towardsnuclear energy, and a number ofreactors were established in the2000’s. However, this was changedby the November 2011 reporton the program by inspectors ofthe International Atomic EnergyAgency (IAEA). They uncovereddamning evidence of the programbeing geared towards nuclear arms,rather than just nuclear energy.This included the development ofdetonators, multiple point initiationof high explosives, and on top of allthis, experiments with the integrationof a nuclear payload to a deliveryvehicle (i.e. short-range, mediumrange, intercontinental ballisticmissiles). The Iranians respondedby denying the evidence uncovered,and threats were made to the effectthat Iran may reduce its’ cooperationwith future investigations. Ratherthan assuaging the fears of theinternational community, Iran hasonly exacerbated the problem, beingever more secretive in its motivesand refusing to cooperate with theUN.But is Iran really developingnuclear arms? Well, given theevidence obtained and judging fromthe Iranians’ actions following theserevelations, many in the internationalcommunity are left with little choicebut to say “Yes”. But while westill do not have enough concreteinformation to confirm that Iran isindeed developing nuclear weapons,one thing is for sure: If they doobtain nuclear weapons, they willhave more than enough weaponsplatforms with which to wield them.Despite comments made by Vice-President Biden during the Vice-Presidential Debate, that Iran doesnot possess weapons platforms onwhich to mount nuclear warheads,Iran is in possession of suchmilitary hardware. The Iranian AirForce possesses 24 Sukhoi Su-24MK “Fencer-D”medium bombers,which have thecapability ofcarrying nuclearordnance, andhave a maximumrange of 2775kilometers. TheAerospace Forceof the Army of theGuardians of theIslamic Revolutionalso possessvarious Ballisticmissile systems,such as theFajr-3, Shahab-3,G h a d r - 1 1 0 ,Ashoura and Sajjilmissiles, all ofwhich have rangesof between 1000 to 2500 kilometers,and some are capable of carryingmultiple warheads and avoidingradar detection. The bottom line isthat if Iran does possess or obtainnuclear arms, they have the meansto exploit them, and I doubt theywill hesitate to use them….But can and will the Israelismake good their threats? In anarticle on this subject in the previousnewspaper, “Why Bombing Iranis Stupid” by Alex Driedger, thecomment was made that Israel willnever do it, because they do not,quote, “have the resources”. Thisseems to be the general sentimentof most people on the matter, andis also blatantly wrong. Israel has,without a shadow of a doubt, thebest military in the Middle East.Although its population and the sizeof its military is small comparedto those of its neighbours, the oldquote is that “Wars are not one bylarge armies, but good ones”, and17