QUESTION: If Iran becomes a nuclear weapons state, would U.S. offer deterrence for Middle East allies? “I certainly believe people need to be thinking about that.”

UPDATE: Reader Gerald Hanner emails: “Having served in Strategic Air Command for the last twenty-five years, more or less, of the Cold War, I really don’t want to see us back in the deterrent business. That takes hard-nosed discipline. I’m not the least bit convinced that anyone in politics today is up to enforcing a deterrence policy let alone funding and maintaining the weaponry needed to support a credible policy.”