let ‘em have nukes

I used to watch Nightline every night back in the good old America Held Hostage days and beyond, when Ted Koppel appeared to be a sophisticated analyst of politics and policy and opened a window into the world inside the Beltway. Now I wonder what has happened to him.

In today’s New York Times ($$), he chides Ahmadinejad for “tweaking” the West (Mr. Koppel’s parents were Jewish refugees from Hitler’s Germany) and then goes on to make the following suggestion for how we should deal with Iran:

If Iran is bound and determined to have nuclear weapons, let it. The elimination of American opposition on this issue would open the way to genuine normalization between our two nations. It might even convince the Iranians that their country can flourish without nuclear weapons.

But this should also be made clear to Tehran: If a dirty bomb explodes in Milwaukee, or some other nuclear device detonates in Baltimore or Wichita, if Israel or Egypt or Saudi Arabia should fall victim to a nuclear “accident,” Iran should understand that the United States government will not search around for the perpetrator. The return address will be predetermined, and it will be somewhere in Iran.

What a clever notion! We should cede first strike capability to Iran, and if they hit us, well then we’ll just hit them back. Pure genius.