An End to Nuclear Fairytales (Redux)

An essay from 2017 newly relevant in light of saber-rattling regarding Iran.

Almost eight years ago, early in the first Trump administration, when the United States was facing the prospect of war with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program, I wrote an essay on that topic for this blog. Now we have history repeating itself with Iran. Trump’s saber-rattling may ultimately prove to be mere bluster, as it was with the DPRK, which would be very on brand (but let’s not tempt him with the TACO thing, OK?). Or it may spark up a third world war. But either way, the situation is far more dangerous this time around, for two major reasons.