[fso301]

I think this ongoing development work has a lot to do with why GWB is trying to keep things cool for a year or two, figuring we have time to take out the Iranian underground facilities with a high degree of success once they perfect the MOP.

Possible but with Iranian uranium enrichment currently at about 3.5% which is far less than the ~90% needed for bomb making, might the current noise be nothing more than an attempt to drive oil prices up and hurt the president politically this fall? A Democratic Congress will in all probability nullify the remainder of the presidents term of office and therefore represents the best means whereby mohammedom and other anti-American interests (including MSM who seem suspiciously keen on this saber rattling) can harm the USA.

[Marine_Uncle]

"Possible but with Iranian uranium enrichment currently at about 3.5% which is far less than the ~90% needed for bomb making, might the current noise be nothing more than an attempt to drive oil prices up and hurt the president politically this fall?"
You could be right. Surely some of the top key mullahs and their president Ahmadinejah plot to do anything that makes them look powerful in the eyes of some of their less educated people and at the same time continue to use their leverage with the Russians to do whatever damage they can do regarding the west's economies. Unless they actually have a fully operational large cascade centrifuge system in operation in some underground facility presently, they are perhaps 3/4 plus years away from having enough U235 to make a low yield nuclear weapon.
And for all we know, they may have nothing, other then the little 164 unit and it is only working in a purely lab type environment, yielding only a few grams of 90% U235.