Article: When Does Iran's Nuclear Weapon Program Come to A Safe Ending?

By John E. Carey
Peace and Freedom
January 7, 2007

Two news reports in two of the world's most highly respected newspapers caught our eye this morning.

Under the headline, "Democrats: Nuclear Iran Unacceptable," The Jerusalem Post's Hilary Leila Krieger reported upon her interview with U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland).

Krieger joyfully reports on Rep. Hoyer "rejecting assertions that the Democrats would be weaker than the Republicans on Iran."

Hoyer said the Democrats' position, like that of the Republicans in Congress and the president's administration, was that preventing a nuclear-armed Iran had to be done firstly through "discussions, negotiations, sanctions." At the same time, Hoyer said the use of force hadn't been taken off the table.On the possible use of force to end any Iranian nuclear weapon ambitions, Mr. Hoyer said, "I've not ruled that out. It's not an option we want to consider until we know there is no other option."

The problem with Mr. Hoyer's bold assertion is this: many member of his party have in the past shied away from the use of force an any kind of option at any time.

So we have this conundrum.

Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has frequently and repeatedly made bold and ugly assertions once thought completely unacceptable in the world diplomatic community. His rantings remind one of the likes of Idi Amin and Adolph Hitler, two dictators allowed to germinate their evil for far too long.

Ahmadinejad stated that "Israel must be wiped from the mad," That the Holocaust was an "Invention of the Zionists," and that the "Zionist state is illegitimate."

He has also made no secret of his nuclear ambition.

This, while Steny Hoyer views a strike against Iran's nuclear labs and facilities as some theoretical "option" on the table, Israel views this idea as not an option but a reality.

The second interesting article in Sunday's international press is under the headline: "Revealed: Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran." This report by Uzi Mahnaimi and Sarah Baxter in the Sunday Times (London, UK) paints a starker reality than that seen by Mr. Hoyer.

The report in the Times can be summed up entirely by reading this line: "Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear "bunker-busters", according to several Israeli military sources."

The existential question of Iran's nuclear weapon program to many Israelis is not a question of "if we strike." The only questions for the Israelis are these three: When do we strike? And using what weapons do we strike? And will our plan be well practiced enough to guarantee success?

The American public and the American Congress need to awaken: Israel is saying the next phase of international dealings with Ahmadinejad's Iran will not be conducted in the cool comfort of U.N. offices over coffee, tea and the cribbage board. To Israel, the war against terror is real and may be entering a very much more terrifying phase.

Read the articles discussed in this essay at:

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2535310,00.html

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