Just consider this an update to yesterday’s post on Iran. Only this time, worry even more, if you’re so inclined.
I wouldn’t blame you.
From Breitbart/AP:
The U.N. atomic agency found traces of highly enriched uranium at an Iranian site linked to the country’s defense ministry, diplomats said Friday, adding to concerns that Tehran was hiding activities aimed at making nuclear arms.
The diplomats, who demanded anonymity in exchange for revealing the confidential information, said the findings were preliminary and still had to be confirmed through other lab tests. But they said the density of enrichment appeared to be close to or above the level used to make nuclear warheads.
Still, they said, further analysis could show that the traces match others established to have come from abroad. The International Atomic Energy Agency determined earlier traces of weapons-grade uranium were imported on equipment from Pakistan that Iran bought on the black market during nearly two decades of clandestine activity discovered just over three years ago.
Uranium enriched to between 3.5 percent and 5 percent is used to make fuel for reactors to generate electricity. It becomes suitable for use in nuclear weapons when enriched to more than 90 percent.
Iran’s refusal to give up enrichment ambitions has led to involvement by the U.N. Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions but remains split on how firmly to pressure Tehran.
Key U.N. Security Council members agreed Tuesday to postpone a resolution that would have delivered an ultimatum to Tehran, giving Iran another two weeks to re-evaluate its insistence on developing its uranium enrichment capabilities.
Iran’s hard-line president said Friday that his country was not afraid of possible U.S. military action over its enrichment program, but added that he thought any such strikes were very unlikely. Washington has said it favors a diplomatic end to the dispute, but it hasn’t ruled out military force.
So. While there remains a chance that the highly enriched uranium traces found at defense ministry sites are simply residue from equipment imported from Pakistan (though, let’s hope it wasn’t imported by AQ Khan), the fact that the readings match the levels used to make nuclear warheads—coupled with Iran’s invitation for George Bush to convert, and Israel’s intel suggesting that Iran is much closer to acquiring nuclear weapons than our own intelligence agencies estimate—should be very troubling to, well, just about anybody, really. Except those who argue that Iran has a “right” to nuclear weapons because other countries have nukes.
That those other countries rarely go about noting that once they get nuclear weapons, they will wipe out other countries in the region, doesn’t seem to bother these nuclear relativists. After all, fair is fair, right?
They also don’t seem to understanding that a nuclear armed Iran would change the entire calculus of the region and could lead to a final victory for Islamists by ensuring (and enforcing through coercion) the spread of theocratic rule.
Which, to some, is only a concern, evidently, if it involves “under God” in the Pledge or the horrifying advent of faith-based soup kitchens receiving federal funding akin to that doled out to secular organizations who provide similar relief to the needy.
(h/t The Strata-Sphere; see also, neo-neocon, who goes into some historical background on the Ahmadinejad letter)
More fascist-Rethuglian fear mongering. You’re just trying to distract us from Bush’s falling poll numbers. WE WILL NOT BE DISTRACTED FROM WHAT IS IMPORTANT. The polls, of course.
Whatever happened to the Nuclear Freeze movement?
I had one of those “Nuclear Freezes” from Dairy Queen. It tasted good, glowed in the dark, and now I can have unprotected sex with my wife without fear of getting her pregnant.
Boy, I wish they’d bring those suckers back.
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Pish-tosh. Everyone knows the UN is just a bunch of stooges for BushCo. They are just fear mongering for their Rethuglican masters.
Calculus? Ughhh. Let Iran have nukes if it means I won’t have to sit through calculus again. (for the fifth semester in a row).
Last I heard, they were supporting Iran’s nuclear program. Ah, yeah, here it is:
Good find, Robert. They are not anti-war, they are on the other side.
Any final victory by Islamists can only come if at some point the US surrenders to them. Nuclear blackmail could work to get them some concessions (like Europe). Then when (if?) the Islamists first use a nuclear weapon there will almost certainly be nuclear retaliation. Personally I would rather not see this go that far.
Lets see. If there are about 20,000 mullahs in Iran then we could send a $2,000,000 cruise missile at each and every one for only $40 billion. The US could afford to do that every year in perpetuity until they run out of mullahs. How many more Iranians do you leftist trolls want to kill by making a nuclear exchange inevitable? Oh, that’s right, if you surrender right after the Islamists first use their nuclear weapons then no Iranians will die. Except the suicide bombers. And a few Americans will die. And all the Israelis, of course. Good plan leftist trolls. Again bravo!