Washington, DC, March 31, 2026 --  

A quick peace in Iran virtually ensures the Ayatollahs will get the bomb. Don't expect cool heads to prevail.

As diplomats scrambled over high tensions and a looming regional war, secretive North Korean nuclear scientists continued working furiously to build the bomb. Only a last minute visit to North Korea by former president Jimmy Carter in June 1994 averted a war, with North Korea agreeing to de-nuclearize.

This diplomatic triumph preserved the peace, but utterly failed to stop North Korea's nuclear program. In 2002, international inspectors confronted North Korea with proof of nuclear weapons development. North Korea then admitted it had the bomb, and then exploded a test device a few years later. North Korea's volatile and repressive dictatorship became militarily untouchable -- its missiles and warheads are now aimed at American cities.

Today, the world is in a similar position with Iran as it was with North Korea in 1994. If the regime does not fall, only obtaining the atom bomb will stop America from attacking it again. Iran has learned this lesson from North Korea.

America and Israel's month-long bombing campaign has failed to dislodge the Islamo-fascist dictatorship -- no surprise after the regime slaughtered 30,000 opposition members who dared raise their heads during protests two months ago.

Today America and Israel have a hard choice: Escalate the war with ground troops to dismantle both its nuclear program and the regime itself (neither an easy feat). Or just give up and go home. If the war ends now, the world must accept that Iran's Ayatollahs will complete their drive to build the bomb. At best, they will use it to terrorize and blackmail the region for decades to come. At worst, they will use it on Tel Aviv or New York.

Experience with North Korea makes exchanging a nuclear Iran for peace sound tempting. In the 20 years after conducting its first nuclear test, North Korea has not blown up San Francisco or Seoul. It has made plenty of menacing threats, has sent dummy warheads raining down into the seas surrounding South Korea, and has sent artillery and troops to help Russia conquer Eastern Ukraine. But it has not used its nuclear weapons in anger, and not caused mass casualties. Unless you are one of the 26 million hungry peasants suffering under North Korea's repressive Marxist dynasty, the 1994 choice for peace sounds like a pretty good deal.

Will a nuclear Iran behave with similar restraint as North Korea? The fact that Swiss-educated Marxist dictator Kim Yong Un has not used the bomb does not mean that an Islamic fundamentalist religious leader dangerously obsessed with martyrdom will behave the same way.

This is especially doubtful given that Iran's arch enemy Israel is itself increasingly controlled by religious fundamentalists. Israel's Orthodox Jewish zealots do not share the same martyrdom obsession as the Iran's mullahs, but they have an even more dangerous belief -- that they are God's chosen people and that God will always be on their side.

The enemies on the Korean peninsula are in a far more fortunate situation -- they have a real grown-up on one side: South Korea. Seoul has shown remarkable restraint since North Korea got the bomb, and has done everything that could be expected not to antagonize its enemy.

Israel, by contrast, hardly ever shows restraint. It is the hot-head of the region, hell-bent on punishing its adversaries its formidable military power. It has already attacked Iran twice in the past year. And also unlike South Korea, it already has its own nuclear arsenal, ensuring that any atomic attack by the Iranians will result in nuclear escalation.

So, yes, Iran getting the bomb will be much, much worse than North Korea getting the bomb. If this disaster comes to pass, the Ayatollahs will likely earn their much valued martyrdom. God help the rest of us.

Related Web Columns:

Lessons of the Conquistadors, March 17, 2026

Regime Change or Bust, June 24, 2025

No Turning Back, December 24, 2024

Great Satan No More, June 3, 2014

Fire the Memory Sticks, September 28, 2010

Deal With It, The Inevitibility of a Nuclear Iran, July 20, 2010

Unstoppable Disaster, The Coming Conflict with Iran, December 11, 2007