PLAN "D"

Much talk of Iran these days and it’s looming nuclear power status.

The President recently left open the door for military action against Iran if it continued to head down the nuclear road. Sen. John McCain is saying the same thing. In a recent, unscientific radio poll down here by WWL in New Orleans – approximately 77% of listeners thought we should consider military action against Iran.

Niall Ferguson over at the LA Times sermonizes that the Iranian Revolution that began in 1979 isn’t going to go away anytime soon – and the Iranians are likely to have nukes that will threaten the U.S. before it does. Ferguson distills the decision on what to do about into the following, depressing, options:

PLAN A: The European Carrot. Where Europe offers Iran a package of political and economic incentives in return for giving up their nuclear weapons program. I agree with Ferguson when he says this plan has clearly failed.

PLAN B: Go to the UN Security Council and ask them to do something about it. Uhhh, right. I agree again with Ferguson that this plan is a waste of time too.

PLAN C: Military action from either Israel or the U.S. with the whole gamut of options available – from Tomahawks to boots on the ground. I agree with Ferguson that this option is fraught with peril.

But where I disagree with Ferguson on this is in his apparent acceptance that Plans A, B, and C are the only plans open to us. There is, in my opinion, a very good Plan D. One that works for both Iran and North Korea. I believe it should be adopted as our "PLAN A".

You won’t believe it. It involves allowing these two countries to continue their nuclear weapons programs unmolested.

Well, almost.

First, let’s just state as a fact that today we’re dealing with the illegal nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea. India and Pakistan have already “slipped under the radar” and are now a reality. The ISLAMIC bomb already exists in Pakistan and we will not put that genie back in the bottle. Arguably, China is a rogue nation that shouldn’t have nuclear weapons – however, they do. Tomorrow, we will be dealing with other countries and their nuclear weapons programs. Nuclear non-proliferation efforts have failed and the three plans that Ferguson outlines in the LAT won’t do anything to keep Iran and North Korea from gaining nukes. Worse, none of the plans address future crises’ involving nuclear proliferation to other countries that we shudder to think might develop nukes.

So I would like to offer ...

PLAN D: IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM – MARGINALIZE THE THREAT. And you do that using two means …

First, the most vital pillar of PLAN D is an effective MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM. An effective missile defense neutralizes the threat of a nuclear missile attack from a rogue nation. If such a system existed today and could be employed in defense of both the U.S. and Israel or any of our allies , there would be little incentive for Iran to develop nuclear missiles. True, many experts believe the major threat of nuclear weapons programs in rogue nations is that they will produce small self-contained nuclear devices (suitcase nukes) that can be used by a nuclear version of today’s “suicide bomber” – which no missile defense system can defend against. And that is certainly a legitimate threat (which I’ll address later on) – but the threat of nuclear missile attack is no less real. If the threat were not real, then Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, and China would not be working overtime trying to develop increasingly effective ballistic missiles to deliver their warheads.

Once the U.S. has an effective missile defense system, we should make no secret about our intentions to dispose of any nuclear attack from a rogue country using it and …

Respond with an UNPRECEDENTED nuclear response of our own. And I mean MAJOR.

The choice for countries like Iran and North Korea goes like this. Okay, we develop nuclear missiles – which the U.S. can shoot down and – once they’ve shot our missiles down – they will then pave our country in glass with their own nuclear attack – which we are defenseless against. Forcing rogue nations into this thought process is, in itself, a STRONG INCENTIVE for them to abandon their nuclear weapons programs. It's not only an effective defense - it's a strong deterrent.

The SECOND pillar of “PLAN D” is -- the U.S. should implement a unilateral policy to go after, via covert means, the governments of countries that refuse to play by the nuclear non-proliferation rules. Completely remove any kind of diplomatic efforts to “convince” a country not to develop nukes. Instead, go after the governments that you know are violating the rules – like Iran and North Korea. The U.S. position on this should be that we can’t stop the irresponsible governments of Iran and North Korea from gaining nuclear weapons – so we’re going to throw incredible covert resources into nurturing, and supporting, internal dissident elements in those countries with the goal of overthrowing those regimes. We will simply put responsible governments in their place.

Consider what impact this will have as a form of deterrence when a rogue nation KNOWS that by pursuing a nuclear weapons program – they will be inviting the CIA into their country to work overtime to overthrow them. And for what reason would they do this? To develop nuclear missiles that the U.S. would be able to shoot down even if they managed to develop them? Covert support of “regime change” is a powerful deterrent.

Is the CIA in IRAN right now working with dissident elements to overthrow the Islamo-fascist government of Iran? If not, why not?

We already know that Iran and North Korea sponsors terrorism around the world and actively supports nations working to overthrow the U.S. government. They aren’t shy about it. We should do the same – and we are morally justified in doing so.

PLAN D – I believe, is an effective way to deal with these emerging rogue nuclear nations. We simply can no longer delude ourselves with the belief that somehow economic sanctions or military force will prevent all these vicious states from eventually obtaining nuclear weapons. It’s only a matter of time. A small walkie-talky radio would have been completely beyond the imagination of most scientists in the 18^th century – yet elementary school children build these things themselves in the 21^st century. It is no different with nuclear weapons. Eventually, everyone will have the technology and capability to build them. There’s nothing we can do to change that. We need to be able to COUNTER it when – or rather before – it becomes a reality.

Now I said that I would address the issue of small nuclear devices – we’ll call them “nuclear suitcases” -- that could be used by a suicide bomber and smuggled into the U.S. and detonated in a major city(ies). The missile defense system of PLAN D doesn’t address these very effectively – they can only be addressed in the following manner …

- By devising the means, and mustering the nerve to seal our borders to illegal persons.

- By developing technology to detect these “nuclear suitcases” at our borders, or well outside of them.

- By articulating to rogue nations that we will always respond with an UNPRECEDENTED nuclear response to any nuclear terror attack inside the United States.

That’s the only sure way to deal with the “suitcases”.

NONE OF THIS IS STAR WARS. None of “PLAN D” is outside of our grasp technologically. It will require a huge allocation of resources to R&D to develop these measures quickly – and they must be developed quickly. However, when you consider the amount of money and lives we'll have to allocate to military force measures to keep Iran and North Korea from developing nuclear weapons. And when you consider that there are many more hooligan regimes coming up behind them all around the world with no end in sight …

Who’s next? Syria? Somolia? An Islamo-facist Pakistan – perhaps tomorrow if Musharraf is overthrown? Iran and North Korea are only the BEGINNING of our worries. We can't invade all of these countries.

I say go with PLAN D. If I need to pay more income tax to fund it – so be it. I’m willing! This is a war!