Comments on Armchair Generalist

I have attached a comment I made to Armchair Generalist concerning the creation of Iran's New Toy:

I must agree with U.S. Department of State spokesman Robert Wood, in that this technology is a matter of "great concern." I further agree that the the problems of dealing with Iran stem from poor decision making and poor responsibility in the upper echelons of government. I am quite worried over the quotation concerning the Pentagon's discussion of at least two earlier ballistic missile launches. The Pentagon's statement that the Iranians launched ballistic missiles that

“appear they were designed to optimize an EMP burst,”

is quite worrisome. It is worrisome, not only because of the phyiscal threat concerning missile proliferation, but also the fact that this move goes directly against the United Nation’s sanctions of Iran’s missile program. The satelittle launch itself does not fundamentally change the proliferation of Iranian missile development. The key element here is the capacity to steadily build up knowledge concerning nuclear weapons and missile proliferation.

"This launch represents another technological advance for Iran,"

says Mark Fitzpatrick, nuclear watcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. Another concern is that the rocket Safir 2 is basically, structurally speaking, similar to ballisic missiles.

"However, this is not as worrisome as the launch last November of a solid fuel rocket, the Sajjil. Solid fuel missiles are more mobile and less vulnerable to pre-emptive attack,"

says Fitzpatrick.