While Diplomats Dither, Iran Builds Nukes

WSJ ^ | August 5, 2008 | John Bolton

[nuconvert]

While Diplomats Dither, Iran Builds Nukes

JOHN R. BOLTON

This weekend, yet another "deadline" passed for Iran to indicate it was seriously ready to discuss ending its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Like so many other deadlines during these five years of European-led negotiations, this one died quietly, with Brussels diplomats saying that no one seriously expected any real work on a Saturday.

-Excerpt-

The rationality of continued Western negotiations with Iran depends critically on two assumptions: that Iran is far enough away from having deliverable nuclear weapons that we don't incur excessive risks by talking; and that by talking we don't materially impede the option to use military force. Implicit in the latter case is the further assumption that the military option is static -- that it remains equally viable a year from now as it is today.

Neither assumption is correct. Can we believe that if diplomacy fails we can still take military action "in time" to prevent Iranian nuclear weapons? "Just in time" nonproliferation assumes a level of intelligence certainty concerning Iran's nuclear program that recent history should manifestly caution us against.

Every day that goes by allows Iran to increase the threat it poses, and the viability of the military option steadily declines

-Excerpt-

Iran is pursuing two goals simultaneously, both of which it is comfortably close to achieving. The first -- to possess all the capabilities necessary for a deliverable nuclear weapon -- is now almost certainly impossible to stop diplomatically. Thus, Iran's second objective becomes critical: to make the risks of a military strike against its program too high, and to make the likelihood of success in fracturing the program too low. Time favors Iran in achieving these goals. U.S. and European diplomats should consider this while waiting by the telephone for Iran to call.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

This man should be Secretary of State, but it probably will never happen.

[nuconvert]

“This man should be Secretary of State”

I totally agree

[mojito]

Bolton is, of course, right again. The window is closing fast. If we went to war to stop Iraq from developing these weapons, by what calculation are we sitting idly by waiting for the Iranians to miraculously discover they wish to cooperate with European diplomacy?

A nuclear Iran is just as dangerous, and just as unacceptable, as a nuclear Saddam, if not more so. The time to act to stop it was a year ago; having failed that test we had better act now - or we can just do nothing and wait for the very unpleasant consequences.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

If the US has not attacked Iran by December/ late November ( in which, is to close in time for the new administration ) then ? the US capitulated to Iran.