Iran, in Today's News 09.26.09

Iran. Many newspapers today ran major stories on President Obama's statement on Iran. He and the leaders of France and Britain charged that (in the words of the Wall Street Journal) "Iran has built a secret nuclear facility designed to give the Islamic republic the ability to build an atomic weapon..." The Wall Street Journal comments that this revelation "significantly raises the stakes in the West's intensifying face-off with Tehran."

Revelation it isn't. The US has known about this reactor for a few years, according to the WSJ. So, why is the US now making a big deal about this?

Well, once again Obama got caught in an awkwardness. He too had been keeping the reactor secret so he could use it to convince the 'allies' of the danger of Iran. But then Iran decided to report the construction to the world nuclear regulatory bodies. Suddenly Obama's little secret would be public knowledge and it would be ruined as tool to convince others.

So, what to do? Simple, Obama decided to beat Iran to the punch. He made his dramatic statement before Iran could explain itself.

By the way, the reactor in question is a typical reactor for producing energy. It has no immediate capacity for weapons production.

The US says that the fact that Iran was hiding the facility and heavily reinforcing it indicates its non-peaceful intended use.

Well, gee, it that so hard to figure out? If major military powers in the world were threatening to bomb my nuclear facilities, I'd certainly go out of my way to protect a new one under construction.

This commentary is not to minimize the growing danger of a military attack on Iran. Obama, not wanting to attack now without preparation, has tried to buy time by projecting negotiations and setting deadlines far off in the future. This little maneuver has grown thin as time runs out on his deadlines. Thus he is brought back to Israel's plan to attack now.

The differences between Israel and the US never really existed. The 'differences' were just the media playing along trying to convince everyone that the US is really an independent force on this question. But now we are beginning to see that the US is once again supporting fully the foreign policy of Israel.

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Today's Wall Street Journal has a major, major article, "The Iran Attack Plan." The article details who should attack what in Iran, when, and by what means. The article has a map of the Iranian facilities and individual descriptions of each plant.

The publication of such an article underlines the growing danger of an attack on Iran by the US and Israel. The publication indicates that the US and Israel are very close to taking this decisive step that would seriously and permanently disrupt world relations and world peace, such as it is.