The calculus for these rogue regimes must be changed radically. I wish the US under Bush had assumed a posture towards ALL rogue nuclear players similar to that espoused by Kennedy against the Soviets during the “missile crisis”. Any nuclear attack (and I do mean ANY…), against the US or her allies should be interpreted as a nuclear attack by ALL rogue players against the US. At the very least I think this would increase exponentially the risk, and chill the current impulse to jump onto the bandwagon of nuclear proliferation.

The list of targets for retaliation would explicitly include Iran, Syria, North Korea, and (through private channels) Pakistan. Any of these enemies would be on notice that violent strikes against their vital interests would be inevitable if any type of attack, including any dirty bomb, or even an unexplained cloud of nuclear fallout, were to occur. Through this we’d force our worst enemies shoulder the lion’s share of burden to protect us and our allies from nuclear attack. Under such a regime, these enemies will be forced to understand that they will become far more vulnerable to grave or even existential harm with nukes than without.

Of course, Bush didn’t do it, and now the US, under the idiocy of our supine Hollow Man in Chief, will never do it. Not for now, anyway.