There is awkwardness in being a great power like the US. First, we are a nuclear power like our adversaries, telling other sovereign nations not to do what we have done. Many did it anyway by our example or in reaction to it.
Now, we have the instance of Iran. Like the Republic of North Korea, Iran hates the US because we don’t like and will not tolerate their forms and styles of government that between the two are quite different from one another.
The only thing they have in common against the US is intolerance for our intolerance.
America stands sounder in our brand of intolerance because we have more members in our club than they do. However, North Korea has China and sometimes Russia and Iran has North Korea and sometimes China and Russia.
In the story posted here, there is much talk about “the red line” and how close Iran is to crossing it. As far as that goes, Iran has been over the line since embarking on nuclear weapon development. North Korea has long since been over the line.
The best thing now is for Secretary of State John Kerry, on orders from the President, to inform Iran that they have crossed the threshold of our intolerance and our finger is on the trigger. There must be immediate standing down with monitors verifying this, or else every day in Iran is on borrowed time.
Then again, we had to borrow from China to say that.
“Iran determined as ever to get nuclear bomb
Analysis: Installation of some 180 highly advanced centrifuges at Natanz plant proves Tehran has no plans to accept West's demands
Published: 02.22.13, 11:02 / Israel Opinion
The new report the International Atomic Energy Agency will submit to its Board of Governors at the end of the month does not point to any dramatic developments in Iran's nuclear program, but it does indicate that the Islamic Republic continues to develop the capability to "race toward a nuclear bomb" within a few weeks from the moment Supreme leader Khamenei and his people give the order.
Most concerning is the installation of some 180 highly advanced IR-2m centrifuges at the Natanz nuclear plant. These centrifuges, as soon as they are activated, will be able to enrich uranium three or four times faster that the less advanced centrifuges Tehran received from Pakistan. Last month Iran informed the IAEA of its plans to activate the new centrifuges, and now it appears that it will implement this plan.
It is important to note that the advanced centrifuges have yet to be activated. It is also important to note that only some of them are whole, while the rest are actually just empty centrifuge casings. Moreover, 180 centrifuges make up only one cascade (one cascade usually includes 174 centrifuges). An effective uranium enrichment process requires a number of cascades.
However, IAEA experts who have visited the facility in Natanz reported that the more advanced centrifuges have already been hooked up to other cascades of old centrifuges. The IAEA report, according to news agencies, also says Iran has already accumulated 167 kilograms (about 370 pounds) of medium-enriched uranium containing 20% of the fissile isotope 235U. An additional 28 kilograms (about 62 pounds) of uranium enriched to this level is being used to produce fuel rods for the nuclear research reactor in Tehran and perhaps for the heavy water research reactor Iran is building in Arak.”
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