Did I Mention

That this is A Weekend of Riches? Wretchard adds to the bloggy goodness with his latest post (based on Friday’s Glenn and Helen Podcast (which is also worth a listen).

Hoping for Plan B
Saturday, July 08, 2006
In The Two O’Clock War: The 1973 Yom Kippur Conflict and the Airlift That Saved Israel, author Walter Boyne relates the story of how Israel, faced with national extinction in the first days of the conflict, considered the idea of dropping nuclear weapons on Arab capitals as a last resort. This story is repeated in an Air Force monograph on the 1973 War without confirmation. By far the most intriguing version of the story as related by Boyne concerns the rumor that Israel had prepared a strike on Moscow to wreak ultimate vengeance on Sadat’s superpower sponsor, although Boyne attaches little credibility to the tale, citing limitations on the range of Israel’s F-4 strike aircraft.
James Dunnigan, speaking at the Glenn and Helen podcast, argued that the key problem posed by Kim Jong Il’s missile posturing — for China — was that it might force Japan to go nuclear, adding that Japan with it’s plentiful supply of fissile material and superlative industrial and technical base, could produce weapons and launchers that could unquestionably work within fairly short order.
These two instances illustrate the limits of political correctness in dealing with nations. No declarations of “illegitimacy” will eliminate the actual existence of Israel; no admonitions against rearmament can wholly restrain a Japan bent upon survival. Words are one thing, but physical reality is another….

One quibble with Wretchard though. Israel has never tested a nuclear weapon. I’m of the opinion that Israel probably (as of this moment) has no nuclear weapons, and I am equally certain they can change that in half an hour or less. Japan, given sufficient motivation, could probably have untested but workable weapons in 90 days.