Iran and its nuclear weapons program is front page news every day, and likely to stay that way until bombs start falling or until a test nuclear bomb is exploded. Then there will be a grand uproar, spikes in oil prices, and posturing by politicians on all sides. (That there is a major Persian effort to build nuclear weapons is no longer doubted by any rational and objective observer.)

Since Iran expelled inspectors and began ingenuously insisting its nuclear program was for peaceful purposes, much has been written about that country's strengths and vulnerabilities with respect to a military strike on its weapons factories. Unfortunately, virtually every pundit has had a strong agenda to sell and a weak command of the offensive and defense technologies. The position usually taken in and by the media is that an attack on Iran is doomed to failure, and that it would have awful collateral consequences. Properly, the military establishments of the US and Israel (and other nations) have been largely silent about the use of the 'military option' to end the program. Now comes this excellent book.

The authors have no agenda except to lay out the nature of the target, and they do it with clear, concise dispassion. A reader of this book will have no doubt that miltary strikes on Iran by the US or Israel would end the nuclear weapons program and would have acceptable consequences in other regards. In other words the military option is viable, and all that is lacking is the political will.

The only addition I would make to this fine work is to add the possibility and effect of using EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) weapons to destroy the nuclear facilities. Delivered by ICBM or cruise missile, they would entail minimal casualties on all sides and end the Persian ambitions for many years. I hope the Israelis are seriously considering that option too, as once more they make their plans to survive. And incidentally do our job for us.

Chet Nagle is the author of Iran Covenant, a thrilling novel about Iran's nuclear weapon program and how to end it. Iran Covenant