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We have an interesting proposal to consider today:
Ahmadinejad said earlier Tuesday that his country was ready to stop its enrichment program and return to talks — but attached a condition that the international community was unlikely to accept. He said Western nations also must stop their own enrichment activities.
“Justice demands that those who want to hold talks with us shut down their nuclear fuel cycle program too,” Ahmadinejad told thousands of people in northern Iran. “Then, we can hold dialogue under a fair atmosphere.”
Other than the fact that I don’t believe a word of it, and he knows we’d never do such a thing, what else stinks about this proposal?
First of all, tomorrow is the deadline for Iran to halt uranium enrichment activities. So, promising they will return to talks is pretty moot at this point. They’ve had years to “talk”, they had a chance to prevent sanctions, and they’ve laughed it all off as “illegal”, implying they have every right to build nukes and send them into Israel. In case you didn’t know, they haven’t stopped their pursuit of The Bomb. The kicker to this is that sanctions aren’t even going to be immediate. The U.N. has to mull it over to see if and when they will even follow through with their strongly worded letter they sent Iran, asking them ever so sweetly not to keep trying to wipe Israel off the map (my paraphrase). Perhaps they’ll send an even stronger strongly worded letter?
Second, its pretty clear who these “western nations” are, and they aren’t China, Pakistan or Russia, who aren’t exactly our best buddies right now. Ahmadinejad is pointing fingers at the U.S. (and possibly the UK) in some absurd game of chicken with nukes. He knows we won’t do it, and by saying we won’t it “exposes” us as the tyrannical oppressors so many in the world, and here at home, are so eager to have out there as the main point. Look at these numbers:
The total number of warheads for each country is as follows:
United States 10,400*
Russia 17,000**
China 400
France 350
United Kingdom 192
Israel (estimated) 75-200
Pakistan (estimated) 25-50
India (estimated) 30-35
TOTAL Approx 29,000* The figure for the United States includes around 3,000 warheads in reserve. That is, not deployed but not destroyed.
** The figure for Russia includes around 9,000 warheads of an indeterminate status. Some may be officially retired and awaiting disassembly [sic]; others may be in short-or long-term storage.
With Russia being very snugly in bed with Iran lately, we are obviously not going to de-nuke. Russia is on a clear course, and is attempting to establish itself as the new SupaPowah, sacrificing its delicate alliances with the U.S. Just a year ago we were worried about Russia and Iran entering into a deal to enrich uranium. Russia still had some of its marbles at the time, because they wouldn’t go through with the deal on Iranian soil. Iran refused to do it at the time, since enriching uranium on Russian soil would be easier to track by the U.N. (I thought their intentions were peaceful?). Now, Russia bought the cow and has been building a nuclear plant in southern Iran, as part of The Bushehr Contract. Thankfully the project has slowed, due in part to Iran not paying its bills:
Russia emphasizes that Iran has the right to a peaceful nuclear energy program, and Russian President Vladimir Putin and other officials have said repeatedly that Moscow would honor the Bushehr contract.
Putin’s increasingly defiant posture toward the United States would make it highly unlikely that the Kremlin could opt out of the agreement, particularly now that U.S. concerns have been eased by an agreement obliging Iran to return spent fuel — which could potentially be used for a weapons program — to Russia.
In December, Russia supported a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing limited sanctions against Iran over its refusal to stop uranium enrichment, but the support came only after an initial proposal that would have imposed curbs on the Bushehr plant was dropped.
Why Russia wants to help Iran go nuclear, is beyond me. Can the quest to be Number One! blind them this much? Hello! Iran will turn on you the second it has the chance, Mr. Putin.
What about the other nuke-holders? Pakistan is the hotbed for Al Qaeda, China is not our ally, and don’t forget that N. Korea still seeks nuclear weapons (despite recent empty promises). We will never “just all get along”, so this whole “I will if you will” is childish at best.
Lastly, until the day that Iran has some kind of miraculous regime change, and says they are copacetic with existing in a world that Israel exists, no one is going to be comfortable with Iran seeking nuclear energy. There’s lots of hubbub in the press about President Bush’s administration going easy on Iran, saying military action is not on the table. However, if you read between the lines, and read lots of “off the record” information out there, “saving Iran” is what Bush wants to make his legacy. Of course they have to keep the American and the World public believing that they want a diplomatic solution, after all, they have to keep the moonbats at bay. But I’m not willing to believe they are blind to the threat of Iran. I think they are keeping their real intentions on the down low (remember when information was still classified in the U.S.?? the good ‘ol days of covert ops, when we didn’t have a TV camera at every combat mission?). It takes some faith to believe in Bush these days, but we haven’t any other choice.
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