  We present a simple quantum mechanical model to describe Coulomb explosion of
H$_2^+$ by short, intense, infrared laser pulses. The model is based on the
length gauge version of the molecular strong-field approximation and is valid
for pulses shorter than 50 fs where the process of dissociation prior to
ionization is negligible. The results are compared with recent experimental
results for the proton energy spectrum [I. Ben-Itzhak et al., Phys. Rev. Lett.
95, 073002 (2005), B. D. Esry et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 013003 (2006)]. The
predictions of the model reproduce the profile of the spectrum although the
peak energy is slightly lower than the observations. For comparison, we also
present results obtained by two different tunneling models for this process.
