Beating the war drums

Krauthammre concedes that the "costs will be terrible" but concludes that the Mullahs are nuts about martyrdom. In other words, normal deterrence won't work. The late Khomeini famously elevated the importance of the survival of the "Islamic Republic" over Islam. Does that sound like a crazed fanatic bent on martyrdom?

Against millenarian fanaticism glorying in a cult of death, deterrence is a mere wish. Is the West prepared to wager its cities with their millions of inhabitants on that feeble gamble?

These are the questions. These are the calculations. The decision is no more than a year away.

Charles Krauthammer - The Tehran Calculus - washingtonpost.com