Iran and a Second Holocaust

A new study (pdf) from Anthony Cordesman from the Center for Strategic and International Studies documents Iran's biological weapons capability. One aspect the report makes clear fairly early on is that Iran has had - or at least, is suspected to have had - biological weapons for quite some time. Perhaps as early as the 1980s.

We're frequently told, by John McCain and any number of neoconservatives, that should Iran acquire a nuclear weapon it would deploy it against Israel or possibly the U.S. To allow Iran to go nuclear would be, in McCain's words, to invite "a second Holocaust."

Yet reading the Cordesman report raises an interesting question - if Iran were truly intent on striking a blow against Israel, why wouldn't it use its biological weapons? They're easier to conceal, easier to smuggle in and deploy against Israel, and are presumably harder to trace than a nuclear attack. The argument that the Mullahs are suicidal and should thus be attacked before acquiring a nuclear weapon never really grapples with the fact that Iran has actually possessed WMD for some time - and has not used it in a terror attack against Israel or the U.S.

That suggests to me that the Iranians are not willing to commit mass suicide to strike a blow against Israel.