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Originally Posted by Andrewl
The program could be secret but the material is not. The materials in Iran are known already.
You are assuming the Iranian leadership has control over all the weapons going across their border???? Canada and the US cannot even do this across our shared border.
Besides, there would be no time for denial. Iran must be acutely aware at this point that America would blame them anyway and use any such event, iranian sponsored or not, to justify an attack.
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I disagree. For one, I think you and others who assume "obliteration" in response may be overestimating the response. I don't assume that there would be an obliteration of Iran in response to a terrorist-delivered nuclear or radioactive attack on the U.S., and I also doubt that the response would be immediate.
In the wake of such an attack, I would first expect hemming and hawing over the responsibility. If the material can be traced to its source, that will take time. Then, assuming a link to Iran, there will be denials of culpability and impassioned defenses of Iran, likely including absence of proof that Iran deliberatively provided the material to terrorists and/or that it intended such an attack. I would also expect part of the defense to include a line of reasoning that the attack was provoked by the United States.
Finally, while there would certainly be a thirst for blood among many Americans, many simply will not want to kill millions of innocent people in retaliation. I would not take a catastrophic response as a given at all, and if the Iranian leadership understands Americans as well as I do, they won't either.