The 1964 political satire movie, Dr. Strangelove had a catchy subtitle: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. It was set at a time when we worried about the nuclear threat from the Soviet Union. Nowadays, we can worry about nuclear weapons in lots of scary countries. We’re going to become very familiar with nuclear weapons, because a lot is happening in the nuclear world.

First off, you can be sure Iran will have their bombs a lot sooner than Obama says it will, along with missiles to launch them at us and Israel, and any other country they don’t like. Thomas Sowell, senior fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, notes in his column: “The United States seems at this moment about to break the record for the worst political blunder of all time, with its Obama administration deal that will make a nuclear Iran virtually inevitable.”

The Toledo Blade published a cartoon by editorial cartoonist Kirk Walters entitled “Iran Nuclear Talks: The Short Version.” A mullah, standing in front of a nuclear weapon and holding a negotiating document says, “How ‘bout ‘I can do whatever the hell I want and you just accept it?” John Kerry, our esteemed negotiator, answers, “That’s doable.” If anyone is naïve or stupid enough to believe that Iran will keep its promises and agreements, and we’ll do anything if they don’t, I have a wonderful deal on some Florida swamp land. I’ll even throw in the Brooklyn Bridge for free.

During the Cold War, the appeasers and liberals argued that we should essentially surrender to the Soviets, that it was “better to be red than dead.” Reagan, among others, ignored them. Reagan’s detractors accused him of leading us to nuclear war. Instead, his tough policies led us to the end of the Cold War, the breakup of the Soviet Union, and less of a nuclear threat, at least for a while.

Things are different now. The mullahs have even less common sense than the Soviet leaders, and only the threat of a massive nuclear response could stop them from launching some nukes our way or transferring some to their jihadi agents. Sadly, we have no other cards we can play. We need enough nuclear weapons to put the same fear in Iran -- and our other enemies -- that we put in the Soviets (and they put in us). Alan W. Dowd, Senior Fellow with Sagamore Center for America’s Purpose, and Adam Lowther, research professor at Air Force Research Institute, writing in American Legion Magazine, report that Obama wants to reduce our nuclear warheads to 1,000 and even to 300, which experts note may be as little as half of China’s arsenal.

China is just one nuclear power we have to worry about, of course., Russia, sensing our military weakness as we reduce military spending, has upped its military spending by more than 100 percent, and Putin plans to deploy 400 new ICBMs, all probably aimed at us. North Korea has some 20 warheads, and we’re one of their favorite enemies.

Pakistan has some 100 nuclear weapons deployed. Osama bin Laden’s hideaway was near Pakistan’s military academy, leading to suspicions that the military knew where he was hiding and was sympathetic to his anti-American views. Not a stable environment for nukes.

While Iran builds their bombs, do you think other nations in the Middle East will just sit back and wait? Saudi Arabia for sure will get a nuclear program going. You know, the country that gave us the 9/11 hijackers.

The deal Kerry negotiated gives Iran 24 days to hide any evidence after an inspection is requested. That’s a far cry from the surprise inspections we were promised would be in the agreement. The deal’s supporters say that 24 days isn’t enough time to hide all the evidence, but that’s doubtful, and the Iranians can surely hide the worst violations. Or they can just refuse to let the inspectors in. Obama and Kerry insist that if Iran cheats, we have the right to “snap back” the sanctions, but by then, the whole world will be doing business with Iran and won’t agree with reinstating the sanctions. That wouldn’t be good for European (or American) business.

Much is coming to light that makes this deal suspicious at best and downright dangerous at worst. We now hear of secret deals on inspections between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN agency tasked with inspections, and the Iranians. For one, the IAEA struck a special deal with Iran on inspection of the Parchin military complex, where explosive testing has reportedly been conducted. This deal, which allows Iran to provide its own soil samples from there, was supposed to be kept secret from us unsuspecting Americans until the papers are signed, and probably afterward. These deals wouldn’t be subject to scrutiny by Congress or the American public. State Department spokesman John Kirby refused to answer questions on the “side deals” during an interview with MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough.

“I won’t speak for the IAEA,” Kirby said. “What I can tell you is that all relevant documents to this deal, certainly all those in our possession, have been delivered to Congress.” Note the phrase “all those in our possession.”

Obama had the UN Security Council vote to roll back the sanctions that brought the Iranians to the table in the first place. And we can trust the UN to enforce the agreement, can’t we? Yeah, I’ll make that bridge offer again.

A Leo Judge cartoon in the Kansas City Star shows Obama on the phone saying “The good news is we’ve made a deal,” while shaking hands with a grinning devil. And that is what they’re doing, making a deal with an Islamic devil that, as Thomas Sowell reminds us in his column, “has explicitly and repeatedly declared its intention to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.” And America, the Great Satan, too.

As the American Legion study reminds us, “treaties are only as good as the characters of the parties that sign them. And America’s nuclear arsenal has a far better record securing and protecting U. S. interests than do treaties with regimes that don’t share our values or interests.”

If Congress allows this deal, many of us could die. The major question: Where will the first nuclear weapon explode? In New York Harbor? The place where you live? In Washington, DC? Actually, they won’t touch Washington; they know the place can do more damage to us just being there.

The Bomb is going to be with us forever. As they say, the genie is out of the bottle. I guess we’ll have to learn to stop worrying about it and hope for the best. I know, it’s a scary future we’re facing.

Allan C. Stover is author of Underage and Under Fire; Accounts of the Youngest Americans in Military Service (McFarland Publishing, 2014). He is the author of numerous other books and articles. His website is www.AllanCstover.com.