The current situation regarding Iran and its nuclear program is a mess to say the least. The Iranians have not been responsive to sanctions against them and they are unswerving in their quest for nuclear weapons. This is an ugly situation and unless the US State Department can come up with a clever crafty solution I don’t see how it can end without turning into an ugly mess. This situation will have to be dealt with one way or another and all of the solutions look bad.

If the Iranians continue at their present rate of attempting to procure nuclear weapons they are expected to have a weapon sometime in 2013. They are already developing missiles which are capable of reaching Israel and Europe.

There is no nice way to deal with this problem. The Iranians have fortified their nuclear facilities so that it will be harder for US and Israeli warplanes to take them out. They have also beefed up their air defenses so that they will have a better capability to shoot down approaching air craft.

The US and Israel were able to introduce a virus (STUXNET) into the computers which the Iranians use for their nuclear program which successfully set the program back. It seems now that Iran has been able to recover from this incident but I am not sure how much that they have actually recovered. There seems to be no other way to deal with them because all viable options except for the use of military force have failed. Even Arab Nations seem to be fearful of what Iran will do with nuclear weapons. It is obvious that the closest nations in proximity to Iran see them as an unstable player.

Any attack would have to be all encompassing in that it would have to take care of everything there. Any thing less than that would be a failure. Even if the attackers know where the targets are it is doubtful that they would be able to penetrate Iranian defenses. Spec Ops troops with all of their stealth technology and tactics would be hard pressed to penetrate Iranian defenses.

In addition, we must look at the fallout from a pre emptive strike which would fail. If all of the nuclear capabilities of the Iranians are not destroyed this would leave them capable of using whatever they had left to initiate a nuclear attack and possibly cause an all out nuclear war. This has to be a consideration of our military planners. This situation is like a wildcard which holds the key to either a terribly horrible situation or one that works out well for the rest of the world.