Chamblee54

Andrew Sullivan links to some quotes by Mahmoud Ahmedinejad about Israel. While he is no friend of the Zionist government, he does not seem eager to drop a nuclear weapon on Palestine. A key quote:
December, 2006: “I want to tell [Western counties] that just as the Soviet Union was wiped out and does not exist anymore, so will the Zionist regime soon be wiped out and humanity will be free.
Yes, the political entity known as the Soviet Union is history. In its place are the individual republics, which are going in different directions. The quotes from Mr. Ahmadinejad (in Farsi) can be interpreted to either mean destruction of the land and people, or the demise of the government. If he is going to follow the Soviet model, then he would kill the government, and let the people live.
Any nuclear attack in a crowded area is going to have lots of collateral damage. If Israel was to nuke the Gaza Strip, the fallout and radiation would kill a lot of Israelis. Likewise, if Iran was to nuke Israel, the radiation would kill many more Arabs than Jews. This in is addition to attracting an Israeli strike on Persia in retaliation.
Iran, to quote Israel, is living in a bad neighborhood. To the right is unstable, nuclear armed Pakistan. To the left is Iraq, which killed hundreds of thousands of Persians in a war recently. Nuclear armed Israel is in striking distance, and seems to be spoiling for a fight.
An invasion of Iran would be a disaster for the world economy. While Iran getting the bomb would not be a positive development, one must wonder whether an invasion would be worth the price.