John Kerry

Last edited Thu Jun 7, 2012, 05:48 PM - Edit history (1)

Putting aside whether the story should have been printed for a while, I think it is an interesting discussion as to whether the cyber attack that took out the uranium processing was a reasonable thing to do. There are no good options - Iran is expanding its program to a point where it could shift to military uses and have enough processed uranium. If they did this , there would be a very short time to counter them. We - and the rest of the world - already have been using tough sanctions and they are not stopping.

But, one disturbing question is that they are not currently doing anything (with this) that is really against international law. It is also true that they - and not Israel - are a signee of the non-proliferation agreement and to this point do not have WMD. Though many here question why they need nuclear power at all, given their oil resources, there are some who explain that there could be a reasonable business case for using nuclear power for some power needs.

As to a foreign country (countries) taking down a major infrastructure element by cyberhacking. I hadn't thought of it then, but I would imagine the US reaction would have been one of rage if any energy plant here were taken off line - or even more sabotaged so it could not function. In some ways, Iran not responding as I would imagine we would suggests that they do not see a viable way to do so that would not lead to their destruction. (That the cyber warfare was combined with assassinating their nuclear scientists in other actions that Israel seems linked to is something troubling - because these people are not doing anything wrong.)

Yet, it may be that the US was faced with the alternatives of letting Iran become a nuclear nation, strategically bombing the sites (and by most accounts there are many and they are located in secure deep places that would be difficult to destroy), and hampering the process through cyber hacking. This then leads to who needs to know what and who has to approve of that type of decision. You said it when you said this could lead to a new nuclear race - and it could lead to a race to develop cyper weapons that could remotely damage other countries.

As to the story, I think there IS a good reason not to have it publicly detailed. The early stories all spoke of it as likely a cyber attack - and I assume that all of us immediately thought the US and Israel were possible sources. But, going back to the fact that - as of now - there has been no Iranian response that I have heard of against the US or Israel and my thoughts on the anger this would engender in the US, I wonder if the US paper of record detailing all of this actually could make it harder for Iran to not respond.