These articles never mention the nuclear option and considering that the cease fire fell apart simply because they wanted to give Israel time to finish ethnically cleansing Southern Lebanon to the detriment of the world economy, it’s not a far fetched outcome.
The nuclear option is definitely a possibility, but it would be a disastrous move for the US to take. As Ted Postol explained in this interview, Iran already has sufficient material to construct atomic bombs. They don’t need any large facilities to do that, and they don’t need to test them ahead of time. This can be done in a tunnel with very little space. Around three atomics would basically end Israel, and they have enough material for around a dozen. The key part is that they can make them even after they’ve been nuked.
But even leaving that aside, using of nuclear weapons in an unprovoked war of aggression would make the US a global pariah. It would be politically impossible even for other western countries to associate with the US at that point. On top of that, this would expose the US army as being incredibly weak in practice. If they have to reach for their ultimate weapon after only a month of fighting that means the US has very little conventional power. Russia is on the fourth year of war in Ukraine and they haven’t had to resort to nukes.
The situation in Lebanon is very much dire though, and it seems like that’s gong to be up to Hezbollah with little support from Iran until the ceasefire collapses again.
These articles never mention the nuclear option and considering that the cease fire fell apart simply because they wanted to give Israel time to finish ethnically cleansing Southern Lebanon to the detriment of the world economy, it’s not a far fetched outcome.
The nuclear option is definitely a possibility, but it would be a disastrous move for the US to take. As Ted Postol explained in this interview, Iran already has sufficient material to construct atomic bombs. They don’t need any large facilities to do that, and they don’t need to test them ahead of time. This can be done in a tunnel with very little space. Around three atomics would basically end Israel, and they have enough material for around a dozen. The key part is that they can make them even after they’ve been nuked.
But even leaving that aside, using of nuclear weapons in an unprovoked war of aggression would make the US a global pariah. It would be politically impossible even for other western countries to associate with the US at that point. On top of that, this would expose the US army as being incredibly weak in practice. If they have to reach for their ultimate weapon after only a month of fighting that means the US has very little conventional power. Russia is on the fourth year of war in Ukraine and they haven’t had to resort to nukes.
The situation in Lebanon is very much dire though, and it seems like that’s gong to be up to Hezbollah with little support from Iran until the ceasefire collapses again.