Petraeus works to halt foreign fighters.

mister pc said

This is a very valid point. The MAD arrangement only works when both sides place a high value on their own survival. The emergence of so-called "martyrs" renders the mutually assured destruction strategy useless because mutual destruction seems to be their objective.

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Not necessarily.

In one sense martyrs are a tool to guarantee survival of the regime. Their willingness to die by the bushel is thought to nullify some of the advantages of the adversary in terms of conventional military power.

Resort to martyrdom can also be read as a sign of weakness. Terrorism in general is the weapon of the weak.

Suicide tactics have existed in many places outside the Muslim world for this very reason.

The MAD arrangement is not desireable in general because if something can go wrong, it eventually will. We were closer to destruction than most care to know on a couple of occasions, due to error, with the Soviets.

But it is highly unlikely that the Iranians have any desire to lauch a suicide nuclear attack just for kicks.

But by all means lets make the Middle East verifiably nuclear free. All for it.