Iranian nukes

After the first rush of news reports about the Qom enrichment facility, we are now getting more accurate ones that seem to agree that the USA has only known about the facility for months, not years. While this lets the Bush administration off the hook for inaction, it does point out the limits of intelligence activities. The CIA missed the North Korean built nuclear weapons plant in Syria until the Israelis destroyed it last year. The CIA also missed this Qom facility for years as well.

Now that the facility has been found, we have to consider what the USA, UK and France are likely to do. Not much is the likely answer. There are times when military action is called for. Not immediately, but after lesser options have been exhausted. The problem is that Obama is unlikely to ever do anything more than talk. Oh, he may agree to sanctions without bite (can't upset the Russians or the Chinese).

The truth is that there is no good answer. We now have a problem which has only bad answers. My guess is that Obama will choose not to answer. After all, he is stalling on the Afghan troop levels even after he campaigned on the need for victory in this "war of necessity". If he cannot even follow through on his stated campaign promises, how can we expect him to make a decision on Iran that might lead to conflict. The man has no courage of his convictions. Actually, it may be more correct to say that when it comes to the defense of the USA, the man has no convictions other than that the USA is at fault no matter what problem we are discussing.

Hopefully, the Israelis will be able to act to destroy the Iranian nuke plants. It does seem strange that the USA is dependent on a little country like Israel to protect clear American national interests. Indeed, it would be much more effective for the US to lead the effort (like in the Gulf War) than for Israel to determine what will be done and when.

We should all pray for Israeli success.