The key point I remember about this book was that nuclear Armageddon was not started by the U.S. or the U.S.S.R. or even China. It was some small, relatively insignificant country in the Middle East, a mouse of a country that, because they had obtained nuclear weapons, roared.
I have thought of this book many times over the years. During the Iranian hostage crisis, I thought of this book. When “The Wall” came down in Soviet controlled East Germany, I thought of this book. During the first Gulf War, after 9-11, and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, I thought of this book. Again this week, with the news of a “secret” UN report that concludes that Iran has acquired "sufficient information to be able to design and produce" an atom bomb, I’m thinking of this book.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, many people wanted to believe that the world was a safer place. In some ways they were right…but in other ways, the world became a much scarier place. I said then, and believe now, that while we needed to win the “Cold War,’ we could not let down our guard because now there are many more rogue nations and factions out there who want to see our destruction.
The focus of danger in the world today is radical Islam which seeks to convert or destroy the rest of the world. President Obama seems to want to talk them out of their beliefs. He seems to think that if we can all just talk out our differences, we can come to a mutually beneficial outcome. The problem is, the only outcome they are willing to accept is the destruction of Israel and all others they consider infidels. They believe that they are faith bound to kill the infidel even at the cost of their own life…and now, some of them are very close to having nukes.
How do you respond to such a threat? Do you wait until we experience a nuclear 9-11? Or, do you take them at their word that they want to kill us and stop them before they can act. I believe the latter is the only moral stance. I believe that we can stop the Iranian regime now through conventional military measures before ten’s of thousands of innocent people are murdered by these mad men. To burry our heads and believe that they will not try to kill us if they can is suicide.
At the end of the book, all the characters could do was sit on the beach and wait for the radiation to come. It was too late, the damage was done. There was no safety to be found. How will the world respond to Iran’s threat? Will we proactively move against the threat to stop the Iranians from completing a bomb, or we wait until there’s nothing left to do but count the dead? Will we act now, or wait on the beach later.
