[Publius6961]

If you want to ponder strange ideas, how about this one?
A mystery nuclear explosion strikes Iran. Enough is known about the "signatures" of nuclear explosions to assemble a bomb to mimic any source known to man.

That being the case, how could any country at all be identified with absolute certainty as responsible?

Remember, the current and inviolable paramount requirement today to identify any given country as responsible for anything is absolute certainty. Just read the MSM for the last ten years or so...

[Cold Heat]

I agree that ID would be difficult, assuming there was plausible deniability.

But in reality, it would be highly unlikely that the U.S. would use nuclear tipped weapons in a scenario like that. The accountability would come out eventually. You could not keep it secret.

Secondly and probably most important, the U.S. would not use them preemptively. We just won't.

Would someone else do it from the West?.........unlikely.

One nuke would do nothing but panic the entire planet in any case. It would take dozens to destroy Iran to the point of catastrophic damage.

Iran must fall from within and conventional weapons could be used to give them a shove.

All this nuke talk is not productive for us. We are not likely to use them unless someone uses them against us or our protectorate first..

[Cold Heat]

Something I might add to my reply is that a tactical nuke may be a exception to the rule. i am referring to demolition charges and bunker busters.

If we did use them, it could be justified use if few people were hurt or killed.

This is the only scenario that I can come up with where we might use a nuke preemptively.