I’m reviewing a Department of Defense spec for RFID implementation. They’re going to use RFID for processing materiel. Good for them. Save me money.
But in an interesting bout of Government Phraseology (applied bullshit), we get bits like this:
the DoD has developed a plan for passive RFID tagging that delivers best value to the warfighting customer.
warfighting customer.
I spent a few moments laughing quite well for that one.
Atrios gets the first part. To wit:
Certainly an Iran-with-nukes could blow the hell out of a city or two, but an Iran that did such a thing would pretty much cease to exist. It isn’t mutually assured destruction, it’s you fuck with us a little bit and YOU NO LONGER LIVE BITCHES!
Which is correct, so far as that goes. Atrios also asks if “…a nuclear Iran really a threat to us?”. The answer is “not directly”.
The point that is missed, I fear, is that the tradeoff above is one that the rulers of Iran are perfectly willing to accept. THAT is what makes a nuclear Iran so unacceptable. MAD is sufficient to keep China and India, and for the moment even Pakistan, in check. They don’t want to die either.
The ruling mullarchy in Iran, and their hand-selected puppet “president” Ahmadinejad, however, have a more “Emperor Cartagia” attitude about the whole thing. And when you are in a fight with someone who doesn’t care if they die, so long as they hurt or kill you, then you do what you can to prevent them ever being in a position to do so.
(h/t: Instapundit)