Smoke, Shabab-3 and Mirrors

Iran is unfolding its own interesting little chapter in history. It’s a fairly moderate muslim country in terms of its own population. Its government, however, is hardline, and their own bluffs are going to catch up with them. In the last few days, they released images of their Shabab-3 missile which apparently has an intercontinental range, and is capable of carrying huge nuclear or conventional warheads.

Worryingly, these missiles could reach Israel, or other American allies in the middle-east (if there are any left). We’ve all heard of Iran’s plans to obtain and develop their own nuclear capabilities, which everyone is convinced they’ll use once they obtain them.

I personally think it might all be a load of crap. Iran knows that Israel and the US (both nuclear powers) hate their guts, and they’re in the business of self-preservation. The image above for instance, is photoshopped and supposedly exists to convince the West not to mess with Iran. It tells me a couple of things about Iran: their computer technicians are weak and not very convincing, and they are trying to convince Israel and US not to attack, because they will retaliate.

I hope for Iran’s sake, this does not backfire on them. What if, for example, the US or Israel believes they need to act to prevent Iran from further developing such weapons. This would result in their little chunk of the desert turning into a big bowl of glass. In the Israeli’s own interest of self-preservation, you maybe can’t blame them for that kind of an approach.

Funny how Iraq were accused of hiding the WMD that they supposedly had, while their neighbours are advertising the ones that they don’t. Weird…