Bombs Alone Won’t Stop Iran’s Nuclear Plans

Reuel Marc Gerecht and Mark Dubowitz’s proposal that Washington grant Israel the bunker-buster bombs to eliminate Iran’s nuclear program ignores the lessons of history (“How Trump Can Counter Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions,” op-ed, Jan. 23). Military elimination of a nuclear enterprise requires military defeat and, optimally, occupation of the nuclear aspiring nation. Israel doesn’t have the capacity, and Washington won’t submit itself to another Mideast quagmire.

The only air strike that succeeded in nuclear elimination was Israel’s 2007 attack on Syria’s Al Kibar weapons reactor. Damascus didn’t have the resources to rebuild the North Korean engineered plant or to seek an alternative. By contrast Iraq responded to the 1981 Israeli bombing of its Osirak reactor by constructing a secret nuclear enrichment plant. But for the serendipity of the 1991 Persian Gulf War and insertion of international inspectors to ferret out and eliminate elements, Baghdad could have had weapons material within a year. Likewise, the final stake into Nazi Germany’s sputtering nuclear enterprise was the Allied victory and occupation followed by program dismantlement and incarceration of scientists.