AJ,
I am very sure that over 50% of our educated population would disagree with your comment even though the truth of the comment is as factual as it gets. I need not present samples of this to you because it would be redundant. We have a muslim in the white house.

History does repeat itself - lessons from WWII. It is less about Israel and more about a nuclear armed theocracy on a jihhad. Delivery system of a nuke? Boats work. Commercial airline - ie Flight 370. N. Korea is simple - retaliate and N Korea is non-existent. Iran and Middle East - a little more complicated. But then Obama "stands by Muslims" so nothing will happen while he is in office.

the next administration may be better. . we can hope. -- j

Very good question. I struggle with it myself. We get involved in way too many external struggles. However, in this case we are talking about a nation that calls us the great Satan constructing a nuclear bomb.

My former boss is a very intelligent Russian Jew and he has a very funny shtic where he proposes that the US could buy the Baja Peninsula from Mexico, financed by the aid that we send Israel anyway. We could then move all the current citizens there and give what was left behind to the Palestinians. The terrain, size and climate are almost the same and they wouldn't border any other country but the US which is good because history has shown that we are the only country that can stand them anyway. This would make everyone happy except the Arabs would keep on fighting each other like they have for 2000 years but we wouldn't have to care.

Hitler made better tanks, artillery, airplanes and machine guns but we made MORE and faster, cranking them out like Fords. Someone that wants to make "A" bomb might want to consider history. Our leaders need to inform the world that we do not want to blow up the world but we will if we are convinced that someone else intends to. Also the message to those that believe death by killing infidels is the path to heaven, perhaps only preemptive annihilation by non-nuclear means is our best option.

Herb: I would hope that you are right. How do you overcome an attempt at extermination, survive, and find it happening a second time? Courage and stamina go a long way but this would require more than that.
Anyone surviving an atomic attack in Israel could not remain there. They would, once again, have to relocate. Where?
I don't want to sound dramatic but I do not believe that the Western world could take such a shock. It is highly possible that our decline ( already in process) would rapidly increase.
Many turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to Hitler hoping that it surely was not true, not possible, unfathomable! But it was... Do we really not want to recognize evil when it stands in front of us? Can we just hope it will go away? Have we not learned from our history?
Iran is one big suicide bomber waiting to detonate and go down in history as liberating the Arab world from their most hated enemy.

When you weigh both sides, and this is a no-win situation, not the Israelis nor the Arabs will come out of this a winner. Think about it- if Israel strikes first and annihilates Iran they will create such a hostile environment (due to their proximity) that their people would find almost impossible to overcome. And they would risk isolation since probably only America (?) would remain friends.
Yet, if Iran strikes first and destroys Israel, then the Arab world would go down their own path of self-destruction with a critically compromised rapport with the West. This could possibly unleash a whole new era of terrorism.

You do the math but I cannot see past such an event.

Actually, the nation of Israel was established in 1949, but your point is well taken. It is the only nation in the entire region that has an economy based on goods and services rather than oil. And that's despite having to fight three major wars during that time to maintain their independence AND having to constantly fight off rocket attacks.

Pretty amazing display of resilience.

Yup. And you can bet as well that if Israel gets targeted, they will also reduce Mecca and Medina to radioactive slag. So much for those pilgrimages that are one of the five pillars of Islam...

I'm glad I live west of the Mississippi. I suspect my state would join Canada.

Except that one nuke wipes Israel off the map. Israel will preemptively strike if they feel threatened. That's one of the reasons that virus got downloaded to all Iran's centrifuges a few years back to cause them to melt down.

One of the cardinal rules of war according to Sun Tsu is never to back your enemy into a corner from which they have no escape. They will fight like dragons.

Interesting. 3 months ago I bought Neville Shute's novel "On the Beach". It was coincidentally next on my list and I began reading it last night. Written in 1957 (a good year), it is of course a post nuclear war story that in the novel begins with: The Israeli-Arab War gone nuclear. It was turned into a 1959 movie with Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire and Anthony Perkins. The movie makes no reference as to who/where the nuclear exchange began, but Neville does. This will be interesting as to what else will be in there that was not in the movie. Or vice-versa.

As much as I criticize the feds, I think that there is no chance of a N Korean nuke causing damage in the Dark Center. Perhaps someplace that the elite see as expendable like New Orleans (aka New Pearl Harbor.)