August 31, 2006, Iran to U.N.: Go Cheney Yourself
I know... it never gets old... And now that the shtick has a national radio audience, I fear I'll keep saying it. But there you have it; today is August 31st, the day that the U.N. Security Council had set as a deadline for Iran to stop enriching uranium and start talking about dismantling it's uranium enrichment program (as said on "Wait Wait," We definitely should talk about your proposal, but I can't take your call right now... I have to finish enriching this uranium, and I just can't hear you over my uranium enriching machine...")... yes' it's official... Iran has not stopped enriching uranium, and when not meeting with demolition contractors over plans to blow up the United Nations headquarters, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton has his team planning on a nifty sanctions resolution (which Russia and China will veto, if it ever even gets that far.)
And there we have it. It's not the least bit surprising. And there ain't a heckuva lot we can do about it (what with being tied up in Iraq and all) other than hope everything works out for the best... our diplomatic options will be limited by a U.N. structure that gives Russia and China veto power over any really nasty sanctions (not to mention our own bizarre refusal to engage Iran directly in any way)... and of course, because our military is... kind of busy.
(Mea culpa, btw; I had predicted a drawdown to under 100,000 troops by now, or something like it, but in the face of ever-increasing violence and the non-civil war civil war, troop levels have stayed pretty high-- in the 130- 140,000 range... with the ongoing U.S. casualties to show for it, though could any sacrifice really be too great for the honor of Dear Leader the nation?)
And so it goes... the good news-- I keep having to point this out-- is that Iran is really years away from actually being in the position of having a working nuclear weapon, let alone being able to deliver it to downtown Tel Aviv. The bad news is that while their progress toward that end is slow... it is ongoing. And unlike 15 year old empty gas canisters, a working nuclear weapon really would qualify as a "weapon of mass destruction."
So... here's hoping that President Ahmadinedjad remains merely a mad figurehead, and doesn't become anything more... because then this whole nuclear armed Iran thing might be, you know, really scary...