Posted on 05/26/2004 11:18:47 PM PDT by F14 Pilot
Newswise — What is it like to live in a world in which the materials and technology for making nuclear weapons are freely, if covertly, traded? We are in the midst of finding out.
Why would Iran, a country that has some of the world's largest reserves of fossil fuels, need an extensive, multibillion-dollar program of nuclear development? Since the pre-revolutionary years of the Shah, the determination of this country to build nuclear power plants has aroused wide suspicion. Indeed, the Iranians have been assembling the nuclear wherewithal with a speed and determination not seen since the heyday of Iraq's infamous nuclear weapons program of the 1980s.
With the revelation early this year that Pakistani scientist A. Q. Khan sold the technologies he used to build Pakistan's nuclear bomb to supposedly nonnuclear states around the world, including Iran and Libya, it became apparent that the threat of the "casual" use of nuclear weapons and of nuclear terrorism had moved from the theoretical and abstract to the bleakly concrete.
As reported in the June issue of IEEE Spectrum, it's apparent from the lies Iran has told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations' nuclear watchdog group, that its theocratic leadership is determined to acquire nuclear weapons. Ironically, it will be good news if the IAEA concludes in its next report on Iran's nuclear fuel development program--due out in June--that the highly enriched uranium particles collected by international inspectors in Iran last year originated in such black market deals between that country and Pakistan.
The bad news will be if the IAEA concludes that Iran enriched the uranium itself, a finding that would require the agency to call for sanctions from the United Nations Security Council. Then, there will be little to keep Iran's leaders from withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and taking their weapons-oriented enrichment program with them.
Worse yet, with the bazaar for nuclear technology open and flourishing, what's to keep the silent partners in nuclear commerce from trading weapons and not just the materials for them? Those who would prefer to dismiss such scenarios as paranoid are not much helped by some chilling oratory that has come out of Tehran.
But not some huge stationary target with a large bullseye painted on it!
On other Iranian matters, I think within the decade it will be liberated. Not by us but by Iranian people themselves. The clerics are rapidly losing their grasp on power, and it is only a matter of time. (As long as Gen Karpinsky and Spc. England don't go there and pull off another 'ooops' situation and push the citizenry against the US). The Iranian clerics are crazies, but the youth is largely pro-American and pro-liberation.
The bad news will be if the IAEA concludes that Iran enriched the uranium itself,
No, the bad news will be when Israel takes action against Iran. Don't expect any warnings.
PANG!
The question arises, are the facilities fortified or underground to the point that they cannot be taken out with an aerial strike? I have seen no information on this point.
I agree. It's time to bomb the devil out of Iran's foreign mercenaries. Then the home grown Republican Guard will be free to take over and arrest the hated mullahs. Someone suggested Israel. No. We should wipe out this regime. We should even bomb the brainier of the mullahs. When we strike, we should act quickly and decisively, keeping the liberal media and DNC in the dark as much as possible. We should also intimidate them with troops near the border, with artillery fire, and cause their army to be diverted away from Tehran. We should spread rumors of troops along the Afhani/Iran border. Or possibly a diversionary force could actually enter the Eastern border of Iran. We could also have marines floating along the Iranian coast, not likely used, but available for opportunities. And of course, navy seals can be very useful, such as commadeering their most popular modes of mass media. FReegards....
We don't have the cojones to deal with this pre-emptively.
But rest assured that the bombers are warming up on Israeli runways.
BUMP
No, bad news would be the Iranrags having nuclear weapons.
China Syndrome maybe????
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