Today on Uncommon Knowledge, Islam historian Bernard Lewis and Commentary editor Norman Podhoretz discuss the possibility of nuclear war between Israel and Iran, and how the tenets of Islam ensure that mutually assured destruction will fail as a deterrent in this case.
“Deterrents worked with the Soviets and the Chinese because the Soviets were not suicidal and because they knew that, if they launched the first strike, there would be a second strike that would annihilate them. Mutually assured destruction. And mutually assured destruction can’t work in relation to Iran because these are people who you might say are in love with useful death.”