Nuclear threats thumb|right|The Israeli Air Force F-16A Netz '243' that was flown by Colonel Ilan Ramon during Operation Opera Operation Opera – a 1981 surprise Israeli air strike that destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor being constructed near Baghdad. Israeli military intelligence assumed this was for the purpose of plutonium production to further an Iraqi nuclear weapons program. Israeli intelligence also believed that the summer of 1981 would be the last chance to destroy the reactor before it would be loaded with nuclear fuel. US President Reagan's decision to station intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Western Europe provoked mass protests involving more than one million people.
Nuclear threats thumb|right|The Israeli Air Force F-16A Netz '243' that was flown by Colonel Ilan Ramon during Operation Opera Operation Opera – a 1981 surprise Israeli air strike that destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor being constructed near Baghdad. Israeli military intelligence assumed. this was for the purpose of plutonium production to further an Iraqi nuclear weapons program. Israeli intelligence also believed that the summer of 1981 would be the last chance to destroy the reactor before it would be loaded with nuclear fuel US President Reagan's decision to station intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Western Europe provoked mass protests involving more than one million people.