Iran deadline a Bush dilemma too - Chickenhawks dusting off bombing plans

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/981691.asp?0cv=CB10

One week from today, time runs out for Iran to demonstrate that its nuclear research and development programs are solely meant to produce energy, not warheads. The United States, tied up with challenges in Iraq, has been happy so far to allow the International Atomic Energy Commission to take the lead on this issue. But Washington is not likely to stay mute if the deadline passes without a major reversal of policy in Tehran, and Israeli officials, along with hawks inside the Bush administration, have been urging the Pentagon to dust off contingency plans for the systematic aerial destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities.

<snip>

The Bush administration, too, faces its own dilemma. Given the widespread impression around the world that Washington overstated, perhaps even deliberately, Iraq’s nuclear capabilities to justify a war, can it really rely on a policy toward Iran based on international inspections, sanctions and escalating threats vetted by the U.N. security council?

So far, the administration is keeping its powder dry, at least in public.

<snip>

“Iran has not fully disclosed its nuclear programs,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said earlier this week. The IAEA inspectors, he said, “have continued to carry out rigorous inspections of Iran’s nuclear activities, and so we look forward to seeing their reporting once they have been able to complete that task.”

Despite the routine sound of that response, the deadline is marked in red on American and Israeli calendars. With 130,000 American troops now in Iraq because of an alleged arsenal of banned weapons there that has not yet materialized, the administration can hardly take a cavalier attitude toward a nuclear weapons program that U.N. inspectors are meticulously documenting.

[IranianDemocrat]

1. My take...

You probably know, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) imposed an October 31 deadline on Iran to prove it is not secretly developing atomic weapons.

It seems that the world has mistakenly interpreted Iran's recent calm and moderate behavior on the international scene as a sign of weakness or fear. In this day and age moderation and reason no longer seem to carry any weight among international community and the only language that is respected appears to be that of force and belligerence. Countries like Israel, and N. Korea are being respectfully rewarded for their continuous breach of international norms and rules while those who have been pinning their hopes on UN and reason prevailing have either been obliterated or continue to suffer more and more day by day.

In the past couple of years countries like Pakistan, Jordan, and Turkey have been receiving billions of dollars and unlimited political support for their minimal support in the fight against terrorism while Iran has been providing most of the crucial help in this regard. From supporting the Northern alliance and the new interim government in Afghanistan, to putting a leash on Lebanon's Hezbollah, to staying out of Iraq and keeping the Iraqi Shiites calm, to withholding support for Russian Chechens and Turkish Kurds, to starting a detente with the Persian Gulf countries Iran has done more than any country in the world to keep the middle east quiet and stable in the past few years. Not only Iran has not received any monitory or political recognition for its immense work in stabilizing the region and thus the price of oil and world economy, it has instead been continuously attacked and mislabeled. And now this bogus deadline to disprove a negative.

It is time for Iran to stop playing nice with these bullies. Clearly the only language that Bush Administration understands is the use of force.

IMO, Iran should give U.S., IAEA and the rest of the world an October 31 deadline to either prove beyond reasonable doubt that Iran is producing nuclear weapons or back the f.. off and apologize for their stupid move. Otherwise, Iran should pull out of IAEA and immediately cease all the political influence that it has been spending in keeping all the different volatile groups in that region quiet and thus give the world a taste of what it would be like when Iran is destabilized.

[tlcandie]

2. Agree .. this cat and mouse game is childish and past entertaining..

it's insanity in a gawd complex. :puke: