Alan Zendell, June 19, 2025

When the Soviet Union disintegrated, the most serious consequences revolved around who would retain possession of its nuclear weapons. We had survived for forty-six years since Hiroshima without blowing everything up, a fact that still astounds me.

The Soviet Union had stockpiled thousands of nuclear warheads in four countries: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Khazakstan. Since the idea that fledgling independent republics would suddenly be saddled with responsibility for maintaining and securing them was a diplomatic nightmare, Russian Premier Nikolai Gorbachev, with help from President Bill Clinton, offered the former Soviet republics a guarantee of sovereignty in perpetuity in exchange for turning their nukes back to Russia.

The world hasn’t ended in a nuclear holocaust because during every previous crisis, at least one of the major nuclear powers was governed by a true statesperson who had their head on straight. If that’s the case, our current situation is worrisome. Iran is run by religious zealots who believe death by Jihad is preferable to living in peace. They are religious bigots who are willing to die and put nearly 100 million of their own people at risk just so they can kill Jews.

Allowing suicidal maniacs like Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to possess nuclear weapons would place the entire world at risk, which leaves the rest of us with two options. Either convince Iran to completely dismantle its nuclear production facilities, or find a way to destroy them ourselves. Like it or not, there is no other viable choice.

People who follow the Middle East have anticipated the current situation for more than twenty years. Whether you think the deal worked out between Iran and President Obama was wrong, or that President Trump was wrong to tear it up, the failure of the rest of the world to deal with the situation until now has us all in great jeopardy.

The person driving the current crisis, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will not stop attacking Iran until he has destroyed both their capability to build a nuclear weapon and to manufacture ballistic missiles, because he is convinced that anything less threatens Israel’s survival. He’s right about that.

I believe Netanyahu, aside from his domestic problems and criminal indictments, believes he’s acting in Israel’s best interest. We don’t know, yet, whether Trump encouraged Netanyahu to attack Iran last week, or Netanyahu did it on his own, knowing the United States would have no choice but to back his play. Whatever the truth is, we are dealing with the horrifying reality that the fate of the world now lies in the hands of Donald Trump.

I am among the majority of Americans who does not believe Trump is competent to make the decision about whether to use 30,000 pound bombs to take out Iran’s Fordo nuclear site. It makes him feel powerful to make threats and keep everyone on edge about what he might do. He gleefully told the world, yesterday, that no one knows what’s going on in his head, like a five-year-old saying, “I have a secret, and I’m not telling anyone what it is.”

I have never hoped I was wrong as much as I do today. The great deal maker has been a complete bust since he took office. The rest of the world is refusing to knuckle under to his tariff threats, and scores of lawsuits are challenging his quest for autocracy. At a time when solidarity with our allies is critical, he has alienated NATO and angered Canada and most of Europe. I hope with all my heart that Trump’s desperate need for adulation will make him listen to whatever competent advisors he has, if any. Do you want Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard deciding your future?

Despite having been ignored by Trump, Europe is stepping up. “After several days of back-channel discussions, foreign ministers from Britain, France and Germany, together with Kaja Kallas, the European Union foreign policy chief, are scheduled to hold talks [tomorrow] with their Iranian counterpart, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.” Maybe the Europeans can convince Iran that it’s in the best interest of their people to dismantle Fordo in exchange for removal of the sanctions that crippled their economy.

The White House wants us to believe master negotiator Trump forced Iran to talk to Europe. It looks to me like Trump mostly created chaos playing power games, without any appreciation of what was at stake. We can make a strong argument for taking out Fordo with bombs, but we should consider that Iran’s threats of immediate retaliation might have teeth no one has considered.

A lot of the nukes that were supposed to be returned to Russia, thirty-three years ago, remain unaccounted for. Are there terrorist cells armed with suitcase nukes hiding in every major city, as Hollywood has suggested? I don’t claim to have the answer, but I fear that our self-absorbed leaders who are spending their time enriching themselves don’t understand what their dealing with.