# Iran, Sanctions, and the Atom Bomb **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 15, 2015, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-sanctions-and-the-atom-bomb/727908 "2015-08-15T08:02:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-sanctions-and-the-atom-bomb/727908/21 "2015-08-16T02:34:03Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > I don’t see any reason why the plan proposed in the OP wouldn’t work. > > But I also fail to see a reason why Iran would want to implement this plan. I wish the OP would elaborate on that. There are effective remote sensing detectors that detect radioactive materials on roads and ships. They have been in place for decades. Every once in a while you will read an article about an alert on a major highway because someone drove by a detector right after receiving radiation therapy. Usually the people running the detectors recognize the signature, but mistakes occasionally happen. Could a bomb be smuggled into the US? Certainly. The odds are against it though. So much that as far as we know, no one has ever even tried. Possibly because blowing up an American city would cause a far larger reaction from the US than 9/11. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-sanctions-and-the-atom-bomb/727908/22 "2015-08-16T03:18:57Z")
A big problem with thinking inspectors are a solution is that a few years from now Iran can just kick them out and see what we do. Especially if we have another milquetoast President in office, because what will do is nothing. Exactly how North Korea got the bomb… ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-sanctions-and-the-atom-bomb/727908/23 "2015-08-16T04:13:26Z")
And if you had been President, how would you have prevented North Korea from getting nuclear weapons? ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-sanctions-and-the-atom-bomb/727908/24 "2015-08-16T05:29:04Z")
I for one endorse this plan. Mutually assured destruction is a lovely deterrent to the sort of goobers who wander the halls of Congress humming, “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran.” Only I think the focus should be on the power brokers’ money, because that’s what would hurt them: I for one would be relieved to know that the Islamic Republic has “Fat Man” knockoffs secreted in places like Bermuda, Grand Cayman, Zurich, Manhattan, um, I think somewhere in Ireland there’s a bank that’s used for USA tax avoidance, and (assuming it even exists) the fabled state of Delaware. Keeping the USA out of a self-destructive war with Iran makes both the USA and Iran safer. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-sanctions-and-the-atom-bomb/727908/25 "2015-08-16T18:07:42Z")
> [@Habeed](#): > > Do cars drive into DC? Don’t you need just a plastic ID card and some cash to rent a car, or basic tools to steal one? Aren’t there several hundred million people on the road right now? > > My point is, the weapon would be almost as deadly if it were snuck in, and I do not know of any way this could be stopped if multiple independent attempts using different methods were made. Well for one it’s unlikely you can smuggle an atomic weapon into the country in a car, the low-yield U-235 weapons that you’re positing require at the least a rented truck capable of holding a 10 foot long by 5 foot wide object. For two, they aren’t all that destructive. America has a lot of cities, you’d really fuck up (but not even completely destroy) one of them. Miniaturization and increases in weapon yield are difficult and take many years to get there. The ability to build the kind of weapons in numbers you’re suggesting couldn’t be done in secret. > [@Habeed](#): > > As a last resort. If the 3rd armored division and the 101st and 88th airborne divisions and all the rest of the US Army line up outside the Iranian border, to “regime change” their leadership, same fate as Saddam, they’d have a trump card. They don’t have to have a missile capable of hitting the USA, just comment out loud “wow we’ve got 10+ of these things about the size of a couple refrigerators that can kill half a million people apiece(if those people are crammed together like in a densely populated city). Would be a shame if one of them went off in a major American city…” > > I always assumed that Iran felt, after the invasion of Iraq, that they needed to get this technology for their own survival. Once they are holding a wildcard like that - if there’s even a **chance** they could successfully deploy it - the U.S. would back off. > > It’s simple math. Value of Iran’s oil, a couple trillion. Cost of an invasion - well, the Bush administration thought it would be on the order of a few hundred billion, tops. Cost if a 15 kiloton nuke goes off in Central Park, New York (I’m no nuclear weapons planner but that appears to be roughly ground zero if you were trying to do the most damage), near the steps of the Washington DC capital, someone in LA, somewhere in downtown Houston…the bill could easily zoom past multiple trillions of dollars in lost human capital and property damage. > > Could someone successfully sneak one in? I can see them being stopped, I just don’t see how you could stop 10 separate teams if they each have a separate plan of attack and you don’t have advance warning. Even 1 nuke, the damage would be unthinkable… The damage wouldn’t be unthinkable, we’ve actually specced out exactly what the damage would be. I’ve pointed this out in probably ten separate threads now, but everyone presumes all nuclear weapons are the multi-megaton monsters produced at the height of the Cold War. The fact is, even the American and Russian arsenals are mostly sub 500 kiloton yield weapons, and producing the multi-megaton monsters is simply not within the realm of possibility of something Iran will do for generations. There are some studies released on the effect of hitting some dozen or so important hardened military targets in the Moscow area with a barrage of 48 W76 warheads. The result of these detonations was projected to kill just under 3m civilians out of around just under 9m in the area. The fallout effects were projected to lead to direct death/injury as far away as 23 km from Moscow. (Based on wind by the way, 23km is how far it would affect people downwind of the detonation, people upwind would be spared the fallout at much closer distances.) Anyway, you’re crazy if you think it wouldn’t be immediate nuclear war if Iran revealed they’d smuggled and armed nuclear weapons into the United States. It would achieve the exact opposite of what they wanted. Is it possible that a nuclear device could be smuggled into the United States? Of course. But there’s also hundreds of points of failure in such a plan **all of which result in nuclear annihilation of Iran**. The Iranian leadership isn’t stupid or crazy. Further, you’re assuming (something a savvy Iranian leader would not) that the only threat to Iran’s territorial integrity, ever, will be the United States. Iran wants its nukes at home where it can use them for regional defense, not “smuggled into the United States.” You’re presuming they could produce dozens of nuclear weapons in secret if you’re positing they have tons of “secret” nukes in the United States and still have enough for domestic defense purposes. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-sanctions-and-the-atom-bomb/727908/26 "2015-08-16T18:22:43Z")
> [@Habeed](#): > > So there’s [Saudi Arabia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijackers_in_the_September_11_attacks). And [Egypt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_Egypt). And [Syria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levant). And [Iraq](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levant). And [Qatar](http://www.motherjones.com/mixed-media/2015/05/chart-fifa-deaths-qatar-move-it-to-the-united-states). And [Iran](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution). And [Turkey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Terrorist_incidents_in_Turkey). And [Pakistan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pakistani_wars_and_conflicts). And [Libya](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_103). Umm. I’m perceiving a trend here. They may not all agree with each other, but these are hardly bastions of the free world. By that logic, I could point to [New York](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_McVeigh), [Montana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski), [Georgia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Rudolph), [Idaho](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryan_Nations), [Mississippi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_De_La_Beckwith), [California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Manson), and [Washington](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Jewish_Federation_shooting) as proof of a “trend” that Americans and Christians are all murderous racists. Your examples don’t even have very much in common aside from having Muslim majority populations - you’ve lumped monarchies in with democracies, Arab states and non-Arab states, theocracies with secular states, you’re conflating their current politics with their politics of several decades ago, and all but two of those governments are US _allies_. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-sanctions-and-the-atom-bomb/727908/27 "2015-08-16T18:27:37Z")
> [@Habeed](#): > > They believe that a camel salesman over a thousand years ago, who created this knock-off of another popular religion, has written down the literal word of God. So does the president of the USA, essentially. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-sanctions-and-the-atom-bomb/727908/28 "2015-08-16T18:32:40Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > A big problem with thinking inspectors are a solution is that a few years from now Iran can just kick them out and see what we do. Especially if we have another milquetoast President in office, because what will do is nothing. Exactly how North Korea got the bomb… According to stories I have read, this is IMHO so no cites, the US Intelligence agencies believe Iran could finish the enrichment of their existing stockpiles of enriched uranium and construct a nuclear device in 3 to 6 months right now and could possibly do so without being detected. This is during a period of relatively strong sanctions. Implementing the agreement means that the chances are increased for a) the time it would take Iran to construct a bomb would push out to at least 12 months and b) inspectors would detect such a move. The agreement with Iran isn’t about giving them, or preventing them, the means to create a nuclear weapon-they currently have that and that knowledge and the capability isn’t going away. In spite of the wishful thinking of certain groups, no one can bomb knowledge. And unless the US is willing to widely bomb Iran forever, bombing wouldn’t stop them from building a nuclear device. The agreement is about giving the west more certain warning if/when they choose to construct a bomb. The sanctions are going away no matter what the US does. Russia is now selling advanced arms to Iran, China and India never followed the sanctions, and Germany and France have already sent trade delegations to Iran. I am frankly surprised that Iran gave up as much as they did given the rapidly weakening western position. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-sanctions-and-the-atom-bomb/727908/29 "2015-08-16T19:19:26Z")
What surprises me is, pretty much everybody thinks that if Iran does get its hands on a nuclear bomb, the USA would be the target. Certainly most of the other countries in the area would want it to use it as leverage - say, showing up at some negotiating table one day with a map of the Middle East in one hand and a pen in the other, and saying, “Draw the location of the Palestine homeland.” ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-sanctions-and-the-atom-bomb/727908/30 "2015-08-16T20:53:13Z")
> [@Esox\_Lucius](#): > > An Iranian population that’s economically well off is much less danger than a poor population with a grudge against the powers that made them poor. IMHO, that’s the best long term outcome of the deal. The US isn’t at risk from the Iranian populace. They are at risk from the mullahs who run the government. Whether the average Iranian is richer or poorer, the Iranian government is still going to be funding terrorism and threatening the rest of the world and its neighbors. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2015, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-sanctions-and-the-atom-bomb/727908/31 "2015-08-17T08:18:16Z")
> [@rbroome](#): > > According to stories I have read, this is IMHO so no cites, the US Intelligence agencies believe Iran could finish the enrichment of their existing stockpiles of enriched uranium and construct a nuclear device in 3 to 6 months right now and could possibly do so without being detected. This is during a period of relatively strong sanctions. > > Implementing the agreement means that the chances are increased for a) the time it would take Iran to construct a bomb would push out to at least 12 months and b) inspectors would detect such a move. > > The agreement with Iran isn’t about giving them, or preventing them, the means to create a nuclear weapon-they currently have that and that knowledge and the capability isn’t going away. In spite of the wishful thinking of certain groups, no one can bomb knowledge. And unless the US is willing to widely bomb Iran forever, bombing wouldn’t stop them from building a nuclear device. The agreement is about giving the west more certain warning if/when they choose to construct a bomb. > > The sanctions are going away no matter what the US does. Russia is now selling advanced arms to Iran, China and India never followed the sanctions, and Germany and France have already sent trade delegations to Iran. I am frankly surprised that Iran gave up as much as they did given the rapidly weakening western position. I just saw in the news that Switzerland has formally decided to make permanent their previous suspension of the sanctions against Iran. Italy has signed large construction contracts with Iran. Discussing the sanctions like they still exist is pretty useless at this point. While one could argue that the threat of re-imposing the sanctions is equally useless, it is still better than no sanctions at all. If Iran were to do something really outrageous and there is a mechanism for re-imposing the sanctions, there might be a chance. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2015, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-sanctions-and-the-atom-bomb/727908/32 "2015-08-17T08:29:35Z")
Iran can’t plant bombs in the US until _ **North Korea** _ has finished its planting. Which was guaranteed to happen as soon as they got 'The Bomb". Seems like I’ve heard this line of “reasoning” before. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2015, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-sanctions-and-the-atom-bomb/727908/33 "2015-08-17T09:43:55Z")
Iran getting the bomb isn’t about MAD or attacking the US directly at all. That would be universally condemned, not to mention military & national suicide. It’s about Iran trying to become the first declared Middle Eastern nuclear power and them eventually forcing the rest of the muslim world to choose sides by them threatening to and/or actually nuking their common sworn enemy, Israel (and by proxy the US). Israel has always known this and they can and will preemptively strike Iran (with conventional weapons) to prevent it just as they did with Iraq 35 years ago. And this would actually be the best case scenario for potentially nuclear-armed Iranians, because if things ever escalate to a Mid-East nuclear exchange Israel will literally wipe Iran (and any other of its stated allies) off the map for a generation or two. Israel has an arsenal of hundreds of modern thermonuclear-tipped IRBMs that cannot be defended against. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2015, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-sanctions-and-the-atom-bomb/727908/34 "2015-08-17T17:19:41Z")
Two points. Why does everyone forget that Pakistan ALREADY has the bomb? If there is a country full of people who hate us, they’re up there on this list. Yet, they haven’t nuked us. Why does everyone assume Iran is chomping at the bit to go toe to toe nukular confrontation with the US? As noted, it’s not in their interests. Also, everyone is also assuming that a random nuke going off in NYC, LA, Iowa, whatever, means that we immediately go to full out nuclear assault on Iran. The reality is, no one would know WHO put the bomb there. Could be anyone. Even with a detailed forensic analysis of the fallout, there will never be certainty who make it, let alone who used it. Are you willing to glassify the middle east because you THINK Iran set off a nuke in Washington? What if it was Russia pretending to be Iran? They get to sit back while we replace Nazi Germany as the most hated government in the entirety of recorded history. ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2015, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-sanctions-and-the-atom-bomb/727908/35 "2015-08-17T17:59:16Z")
As always with the ME countries, one has to ask whose hand is on the bomb’s trigger? When the economic elite hold the trigger, they will definitely be influenced by how much they have to lose in the event of a nuclear exchange with the US. Economic elites are interested in retaining what they have. They have a clear stake in continued survival. While their trigger finger may be itching, it’s unlikely to be deployed. For them, much as for the USSR, mutual deterrence will bring them the security they want vis-a-vis the US. But - and it’s a big one - the ME countries are incredibly volatile and subject to coups, regime changes, and takeovers by religious fringe elements who do not have the vested interests that keep the economic elite from engaging the US in a nuclear war. As with the breakup of the Soviet Union, the largest concern was with who had the nukes and what would they do with them? In the Soviet Bloc it has been, for the most part, a non-event. I wouldn’t imagine that would be the case in the ME. When groups don’t value the continuation of their own existence, they are clearly unlikely to worry about those of their enemies. They could very well shoot first and sit back to anticipate the afterlife. I don’t know if Obama is taking the right tack here, but his choices are far more limited than you’d think. It isn’t even so much about the supply of oil anymore as it is the risk of all-out committment to the area by the US if anything else in the region escalates to war. We simply cannot fight limitless wars in the ME. We need to disengage with the ones we already have in process. Whatever Obama does is a ‘damned if you do and damned it you don’t’ situation. I don’t envy him. ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-sanctions-and-the-atom-bomb/727908/36 "2015-08-19T06:41:54Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > The US isn’t at risk from the Iranian populace. They are at risk from the mullahs who run the government. > > Whether the average Iranian is richer or poorer, the Iranian government is still going to be funding terrorism and threatening the rest of the world and its neighbors. > > Regards, > Shodan I’m going on the general principle that a populace with good jobs in a healthy economy has less reason to strap bombs to themselves or blow up embassies. If the mullahs keep preaching hate against America, the populace might question their relevance and actively oppose the leadership. That’s what I see as a possible byproduct of the deal. The same could be said for Cubans. Once they get a whiff of prosperity, how long will they put up with an oppressive regime. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-sanctions-and-the-atom-bomb/727908/37 "2015-08-19T07:45:39Z")
**Esox Lucius** : It’s a strategy that seems to have made Red China far less threatening than in decades past. It’s a variant on the “Republics don’t make war on Republics.” Well-to-do people are more reluctant to support wars than desperate people are. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-sanctions-and-the-atom-bomb/727908/38 "2015-08-19T09:19:34Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > **Esox Lucius** : It’s a strategy that seems to have made Red China far less threatening than in decades past. It’s a variant on the “Republics don’t make war on Republics.” Well-to-do people are more reluctant to support wars than desperate people are. What??? China is more threatening than ever. She is expanding her military and is aggressive with her neighbors. Maoist China was a paper tiger. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-sanctions-and-the-atom-bomb/727908/39 "2015-08-19T11:51:45Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > It’s about Iran trying to become the first declared Middle Eastern nuclear power and them eventually forcing the rest of the muslim world to choose sides by them threatening to and/or actually nuking their common sworn enemy, Israel (and by proxy the US). Israel has always known this… Ah, yes, the, “It’s all about us,” paranoid Zionist line. This probably says more about Israeli and US apocalyptic fantasies than about Iran. As if Iranians really have nothing better to do than to start a suicidal war on a country they don’t even border to impress a bunch of Arab tribesmen they despise! Are there a few screwball apocalyptic types in the Iranian populace, waiting for the Hidden Imam to return and call them to battle? _Sure._ Are they driving Iranian foreign policy? _Prove it._ ---
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-sanctions-and-the-atom-bomb/727908/40 "2015-08-19T17:13:39Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > What??? China is more threatening than ever. She is expanding her military and is aggressive with her neighbors. Maoist China was a paper tiger. She hasn’t done anything yet, just has used her new prosperity to upgrade her military to modern standards appropriate for defense of a nation of that size and wealth. The individual people on the street collectively love Apple products and have been as a nation copying all the good stuff they can from the USA and Europe. While some of this copying seems bad - counterfeit goods and the like - other parts of it seem like a very positive development. China has copied the look of Apple stores, whole towns, architecture, art, ideas, they send millions of their citizens to Western schools… I have to hope that means that while China is simultaneously gaining the means to be a threat, at the same time, this kind of blending of cultures will hopefully remove the motive. You can’t dehumanize and murder by the millions a culture that you love and shamelessly steal from…probably… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-sanctions-and-the-atom-bomb/727908.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-sanctions-and-the-atom-bomb/727908.md?page=3)