War is an endemic

For millennia, historians, philosophers and states-men have pondered about war, its nature and the nature of leaders who take their people to war. Iran cannot match Israel's daring commandos or precision spyware technologies that destroy their military facilities and assassinate their generals and scientists.

- ANITA PRATAP

But Iran has nuclear capabilities—again incomparable to Israel’s nuclear weapons. People blank out nuclear devastation because it is too dreadful to imagine or they believe leaders aren’t stupid enough to bring it on. Yet mistakes, miscalculation and overconfidence have catastrophically blighted human history. Albert Einstein purportedly said, “I don’t know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”

About 2,000 years ago, Roman statesman Cicero introduced the concept of ‘just war’—waged to achieve justice or peace, conducted with moral constraints and under specific ethical conditions. His wisdom underpins modern laws. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a messianic mission to destroy Iran’s nuclear bomb-making capability, decapitate leadership and cripple Iran’s alleged “existential threat” to Israel.