I've wondered how much of a deterrent dirty bombs are or aren't outside of nukes and curious if they might be in the cards for retaliatory moves by Iran.
My understanding is those don't accomplish much militarily since they just give people cancer 30 years later. So you commit a war crime for no military advantage, then what? The other country just hits back with a dirty bomb of their own?
My mental model does assume they must have plutonium in a meaningful quantity rather than just uranium for a dirty bomb to be remotely "effective" and I have no idea if that's even plausible. And if they do I'm not sure exactly what would lead to a dirty bomb over attempting an actual nuclear device.
But even a not very effective permutation of a dirty bomb seems like it could lead to headlines that look more "positive" for their leadership. (IE create outsized headlines.)
