Using nukes to prevent the use of nukes

This is a distressing story:

... in a report appearing in the New Yorker, left-wing columnist Seymour Hersh claims that President Bush is so filled with doubt over the Pentagon's conventional capabilities that he asked military planners to consider using nuclear weapons against Iran.

Distressing, not because of using nuclear weapons per se, but due to the irony of using nuclear weapons to deny another sovereign nation the ability to produce nuclear weapons. Does anyone else see it - the irony, that is?

Intellectual irony should not limit resolve to do what is right, however. Iran is a threat precisely because it makes threats - to the U.S., to Israel, to any person or group of persons who defends classical liberalism - the Western way. It follows through on those threats principally through surrogates, but has a history of doing so itself from time to time.

Still, I would feel more comfortable, intellectually, allowing the Iranians to produce a nuclear weapon or weapons before using our own. They (nukes) have such a stigma attached to them. As a decadent culture in profound moral decline, we have little moral capital which to spend on such an endeavor.

Author's note: some add'l content which merits your attention:

'Big George': The Coming Attack on Iran
State Dept Official: Iran Could Build Nukes in 'Days'
Iran Rejects UN Appeal for Nuclear Freeze