From Yahoo News/Reuters:
Foreign Policy: Nuclear Inspectors Have Snazzy New Tools to Catch Iran Cheating
The catch: Iran gets to approve which ones the IAEA can use.
On the heels of Iraq’s defeat in the 1991 Gulf War, inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency returned to Baghdad with a mandate from the U.N. Security Council to find and destroy the country’s illicit nuclear weapons program. What they found astonished them: Left unchecked, Iraq had hoped to have a bomb by the end of the year.
IAEA inspectors had frequently visited Iraq throughout the 1980s, touring the country’s nuclear facilities and checking to see whether Baghdad’s declarations to the Vienna-based agency were complete. While some within the agency harbored suspicions about Iraq’s intentions, the IAEA failed to grasp the true extent of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program. Iraq used a campaign of deceit and deception to clandestinely acquire the tools, materials, and knowledge necessary to construct a nuclear weapon. At the same time, IAEA officials were invited for carefully choreographed visits to sites such as the Tuwaitha research facility, a center for the weapons program. The officials left thinking that Iraq was far from attaining a bomb — a serious miscalculation that wasn’t corrected until after the first Gulf War.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: So much for clear and open inspections.
1 comment:
In early January 2008, I patiently explained to family and friends we did not need to worry about an Iranian nuclear weapon. The Israelis acting alone or in concert with the Gulf Arab nations were going to eliminate this problem.
We would not be involved nor would American leadership be informed. American pilots lack the flying skills or the leadership neccessary to penetrate Iranian air defenses. Additionally, if the Americans were kept in the proverbial loop regarding an attack, Iranian agents deep within the US government would instantly notify the Iranians of the coming attack placing grave doubt on the possibility of it's success.
I went on to explain to friends and family our best approach when this went down would be TO GET OUT OF ISRAEL'S WAY!! They were going to handle this prjoblem and any help from us would only have negative utility.
Frankly I was rather looking forward to seeing the "deer in the headlights look" from American officials as microphones were pressed to their faces in the aftermath trying to explain what happened all while knowing many of said officials are Iranian agents. To say I'm dissappointed the Israelis did not handle this is an understatement. They have their reasons for not handling this. Only God and they know what they are.
Now here we are in 2016. The bottom line is Iran will get nuclear weapons or already has them and there's nothing we can do about it. Even if we had a military option ourselves against Iran they are backed by Russia the most powerful military force on earth. As such, there is no military option with regards to Iran.
Whatever Iran got from the nuclear deal they were going to get anyway. Why bother with a deal at all? Perhaps to further humiliate the "great satan."
Bottom line: Iran has or will soon have nuclear weapons, Iran remains an implacable enemy of America and this is unlikely to change, Iran has tbe Russian military the world's most powerful behind it along with a network of allianes America can't hope to match. What do we do? All of this was true in 2008. Unfortunately now it's even more lopsided in favor of Iran now tgan it was then.
As for what do we do, I thought Israel was going to take care of this problem. They didn't. Nkw here we are. Had I have known they wouldn't take care of this my suggestions would have been different. Now it's likely to late for even the Israelis to take care of this.
The best we are probably going to be able to do is adopt a military/defense posture that will make the inevitable Iranian victory pyric enough they would hesitate before attacking us. This along with working to improve relations with Russia might just be enough. For example, if we had the kind of relations witb Russia that they would communicate to Iran that "death to America" is unacceptable and any attempt to carry this out would be met with extreme prejudice by the Russian military, this would be rxtremely helpful. Unfortunately we've lost eight + years that could have been used to prepare!! God help us all!!
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