Interesting link Peace, if it still holds true (I realise it was as of 1997) it means that it is getting on for 20 years since the US produced a nuclear weapon. In fact not since the SALT, START agreements reached with the USSR.

Timing is a bit off MGOH the Cuban Missile crisis happened before the theory of MAD came into being. Mutually Assured Destruction as a deterrent was only credible once a second strike capability existed for both sides. That point was truly reached when both sides possessed SSBN's (nuclear submarines capable of firing ballistic nuclear missiles).

MGOH reckons that the USA should see the idea of Iran having an effective deterrent as a potentially stabilising development.

Now let's see in the 1920's someone wrote a book about what they intended to do given the opportunity, a few years later he got the opportunity developed the means and enacted what he had written with a few modifications and which resulted in turmoil and immense human suffering.

In Iran today we have a person in position to act, who has stated clearly what the goal of every Islamist should be, who leads a country that has developed a capable delivery system for ballistic weapons and who now is trying to convince the world that it only wants to develope the capability to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.

Sorry MGOH, a nuclear armed Iran a stabilising influence - not as long as your arse points downwards.