They can absolutely stop; they just choose not to. And hamstringing their attempts to develop their nuclear program is a far better option than trying to topple their government in terms of maintaining stability in the region. Toppling the Iranian government would make every other Arab nation skittish and potentially be a rallying cry for them. Keeping their military options limited is far less incendiary.
Given what we’ve seen over the last little while, do you think Israel won’t be able and willing to topple the regime if they don’t have a lethal gun pointed towards Israel? There’s pressure from the outside, and from the inside on them. They have to keep terrorising to maintain the internal pressure. They have to be able to stop Israel from taking them out as a result of their terrorising. I don’t know if their current arsenal is a deterrent enough for that. If I were a supreme leader who wanted to stay in power, I’d be overturning mandatory prayer for the nuclear scientists and enginners working overtime to get to a test detonation (not over Israel) ASAP. As a supreme leader I feel like last year, perhaps even weeks ago, I did have the option to not make nukes. After the attacks in Lebanon that left my primary deterrent in an unknown state of degradation, I’m not feeling so lucky.
No one is forcing Iran’s dictators to remain dictators. They could become benevolent leaders or simply flee the nation. Israel gains relatively little from creating a power vacuum in Iran that will likely just be filled by another Israel-hating regime. They gain much more by destroying Ming the current regime’s ability to attack Israel.
Israel gains relatively little from creating a power vacuum in Iran that will likely just be filled by another Israel-hating regime.
Exactly.
They gain much more by destroying Ming the current regime’s ability to attack Israel.
Agreed. If this could be achieved without dragging the rest of us in an Iraq-like war. It might be possible but I don’t trust the current Israeli leadership to act in a way that achieves it. Especially given their PM said straight up he’s up to toppling the regime couple of days ago.
No one is forcing Iran’s dictators to remain dictators.
If that were possible, it would have likely happened already given how long this regime has stayed in power. It’s also very unlikely that it’s 5 guys in rags after so many decades, so even if they go crazy, the remainder would likely say fuck that and replace them. I think it’s much more useful to look at people as automatons whose actions are driven by the systems they exist in, than to consider them as free actors.
Your argument is refuted by the existence of plenty of other non-terrorist-supporting, non-dictatorship-led, non-oppressive, non-nuclear nations in the world that the U.S. isn’t fucking over in the manners you describe.
