Posted on 05/26/2012 3:26:29 PM PDT by Scotsman
Well, for starters, it means that all the timetables you've heard about for the last decade were just rendered inoperative and the world just found out that Iran is much further along than my favorite people, 'the smartest guys in the room' believed.
I'll leave the details of the physics to those that want to go down that rathole, and explain it in everyday automotive terms.
Your mission is to go from point A to point B over land at up 20 miles an hour. Yes, you're in the 21st century, and have everything the world produces at your disposal to accomplish this mission.
Here's the hook - you are not Ford and you have a limited budget (we won't know how big your budget is until we see the result, but if you are playing at home, use no more than 10% of your annual income), and you must build whateveritis by yourself.
You will probably start off by taking a second look at that old riding mower out back, but by the time you are finished, you have something with 4 wheels, a motor and a way to control it. The thing works, didn't cost too much and as a bonus, you've fixed the mower so it still functions in the yard and the wife is slightly less distressed about the junk and lawn.
So far, so good. That is the public world view regarding Iran's "peaceful" nuclear program.
Your old, original riding lawn tractor can do, I don't know, what? Maybe 5 to 7 mph out of the crate. Your tractor, at 5 to 7 mph equates with the Iranian nuclear enrichment program; 5 - 7% enrichment (give or take enough to make the numbers work) gets your nuke program into the "peaceful" use category.
The mission you were given, though, was to travel UP TO 20 mph. So you MODIFIED the tractor until it would go 20mph. The day you and your buddy and some cold ones confirmed the 20mph, with you, the tractor, and his Ram 1500's spedo, the lady of the house told you to never do that again, only slightly more pointedly.
A while ago we learned that Iran was enriching uranium to that 20% (20mph) level - beyond what was needed for "peaceful" domestic energy use. But that's Ok because one needs 90% or better to vaporize a city. Impressive damage can be done by critical nuclear reactions at lower than 90% enrichment, but to be certain of a citybuster, 90% is your target.
What you didn't tell the little woman was that there were several tests, and after each cold one, the tractor was able to go faster, until it ran out of gas, and you ran out of cold ones. All you told her was something like, "Hon I got the mower up to 20mph!".
So you successfully completed the mission.
Change the MPH numbers to percentages and you have the Iranian Nuclear Program, complete with the IAEA playing the part of wifey and North Korea playing a supporting role as your buddy with the Ram.
Things you know that Wifey doesn't:
Somewhere between the third and sixth cold one, your buddy clocked you going fast enough that you made him swear to never tell anyone how fast you went. You know in your heart you were going 90mph - at least it felt that fast and the Ram had a hard time keeping up so you are not completely certain of that exact speed - but close enough to make a great story, whenever wifey isn't nearby ...
Then, about a month later, with belated thanks to the cold ones, a speed camera ticket shows up at the house and you didn't get the mail that day.
It was for 27mph, in a school zone.
Wifey, if she's all trusting and believing of you will say something along the lines of, "I thought you said you could only go 20mph, wtf?".
If she is not so nice, her name is Isreal, and that 7mph discrepancy was the final straw.
Beyond that point in time, Iran's facility hardening program will be far enough along as to make their nuclear program unstoppable, if it is not already.
Can’t be true. The NIE told us in 2007, (when Bush was ready to invade), that Iran had terminated its weapons program.
Excellent analogy to tell the story line. Of course, had you given the North Koreans a Ford Powerstroke an exact speed would have been easy to achieve as it slowed DOWN to match the mower speed.
I also appreciate you translating this into the vernacular the people of our tribe understand. This is something hillbilly Scots and Scotch Irish Americans can relate to.
As we have heard from infancy around our tribal fires.....
‘Hey y’all. Hold ma beer and watch this.” and the ever famous.....”Put this brick on it and light the fuse. It won’t come this far”
"If she is not so nice, her name is Isreal, and that 7 mph discrepancy was the final straw.
Expanding it a little bit, the point was that Iran could go out into the open market and buy the nuke power plants, out of the crate, so to speak, from GE (or the Russians even)before they went the enrichment route.
Why mess with a lawn tractor when, out of the crate, it does everything you'd legitimately want or need it to do?
Once people understand that by choosing the path they have, Iran told the world it is going to pursue offensive nuclear weapons.
A further point buried in the analogy is that once you can enrich to 20%, you have all the technology and equipment needed to take it to 90%. You just run the equipment for a longer time for higher enrichment.
The world bought Iran's story and turned a blind eye to the entire enrichment process, choosing to trust Iran to not enrich beyond the 20% level.
That speed camera ticket in the mail says that Iran has been caught lying and should never have been trusted in the first place.
Isreal is going to sentence Iran for that ticket, and Iran's license already has too many points on it.
The cold ones? That would be the influence of Radical Islam.
Good Memorial Day to you!
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