Iran and nuclear bomb

Iran is now calling the Americans bluff by advocating wiping Israel off the map. The U.S., with vulnerable troops next door in Iraq where the death toll is becoming unacceptable to the U.S. public, can do little or nothing.

Threatened by the West and surrounded by nuclear powers to the north and east and with Israel to the west, Iran will certainly develop a nuclear bomb, if it has not done so already. In fact, the Iranians, with their long history of virulent anti-Semitism may, in their martyr-like way, actually be spoiling for a conventional attack by Israel to which they will respond with nuclear weapons.

The situation is extremely dangerous and, with a grossly incompetent U.S. administration that could well collapse, is likely to get worse. There is now the real possibility of the horror of the Middle East going up in radioactive flames because of stupidity all round -- a nuclear rerun of the imbecility that brought Europe to its knees last century; that will have severe consequences for the entire world.

When will we ever learn?

FRANK RICHARDSON Norwich, UK