daily life they don't act that way. That's fairly common right? That people don't actually act the way their sincere beliefs tell them they should act. It's the most common thing is to be two people at once.

And it seems to me that there's got to be a practical understanding that Iran would be destroyed far before Israel would be destroyed. And since that will never be their ambition to destroy their own country it seems like on some level they know they're going to have to reach an accommodation.

Now let me suggest this. If they could ever come up with some way to believe that they could politically prevail in the long run would that satisfy their religious need or do they have to conquer by violence? In other words could they ever be convinced that they can spread their Islamic beliefs through the internet, through friendly connections, through immigration? Could they ever be convinced that they don't have to nuke somebody or kill them to get it done? Would that fit within their belief system?

I think it already does. I think the very first spreading of Islam is the al-hijra, the move from Mecca to Medina. And that was an immigration to found an Islamic state. That's what al-hijra means. That's the start of the calendar. So I don't believe that they necessarily say that it must be done through violence and conquest. They actually they'll do it any way that they can.

But to get something back to just one little thing you said there. When they do hold this in two ways in their heads I think it's a very important thing. They're not all behaving at all times religiously. But for Islam politics and religion are the same thing. That's their entire outlook. It's mixed. And we can't take any risks. The only reason... I grew up as a child of the Cold War with the Russians. Sting song, do the Russians love their children too? And I still fundamentally believe that based on the sort of Christian culture that Russia came from even though the Soviets sort of tried to suppress that they do love their children in the same way. So I don't believe in mutually assured destruction as a deterrent with the Iranians.

But it has worked. Wouldn't you say that if Iran wanted to attack Israel at the risk of not even risk but at certain annihilation, in other words if Iran wanted to just conquer Israel, didn't care about surviving as a country, didn't care how many people died doing it, they could take a shot at it right now.

Well they have taken. They were involved in the attacks in '67 and '72, '73. So they've tried. But since the nuclear era they haven't had nuclear weapons. But that's why we rea