Enriching Iran
Stardate 5318.2
There are many many viewpoints about this, and the last posting drew quite a debate amongst readers (which is great). I think one thing that most people can agree upon is that Iran should not enrich their own uranium and most definately should never aquire the materials needed to construct nuclear weapons in any form.
Of course, the headlines this morning suggest that in fact, Iran has resumed it's uranium enrichment against the will of many nations of the European Union and the UN. Now I don't want to necessarily draw comparison with Iraq, because I think the situation is very different this time around. With Iraq, there was no solid intel on the WMDs or any of the other claims that King George cited as reasons for the invasion, and in fact, it was known that the weapons were only an excuse and that the admin had already decided to go to war.
So Iran is different. They are flaunting their enrichment without apparent concern of the repurcussions, despite an agreeable offer from the Russians to enrich uranium for them for use in a nuclear reactor and against the will of most western nations including China. At present, they have decided to ignore the demands of the IAEA and go ahead with small scale enrichment. Why not full out? In the words of a member of the Iranian Supreme Council,
In other words, they appear to have no intention of stopping. Negotiations with the Russians have been halted indefinately, and as equipment is built, the process will only go faster. So again, what do we do? I suppose I could ask this every week. Sanctions are weak at best, and only serve to punish the people and solidify their prejudice against the sanctioners... Force? I am not sure if this is a great time. With the cafuffle over religious cartoons (and rightfully so) on top of the already thinly stretched tension in the Middle East, conflict is one of the last things I can see beign productive...
Remember my poll on the sidebar. Go ahead... vote :)
There are many many viewpoints about this, and the last posting drew quite a debate amongst readers (which is great). I think one thing that most people can agree upon is that Iran should not enrich their own uranium and most definately should never aquire the materials needed to construct nuclear weapons in any form.
Of course, the headlines this morning suggest that in fact, Iran has resumed it's uranium enrichment against the will of many nations of the European Union and the UN. Now I don't want to necessarily draw comparison with Iraq, because I think the situation is very different this time around. With Iraq, there was no solid intel on the WMDs or any of the other claims that King George cited as reasons for the invasion, and in fact, it was known that the weapons were only an excuse and that the admin had already decided to go to war.
So Iran is different. They are flaunting their enrichment without apparent concern of the repurcussions, despite an agreeable offer from the Russians to enrich uranium for them for use in a nuclear reactor and against the will of most western nations including China. At present, they have decided to ignore the demands of the IAEA and go ahead with small scale enrichment. Why not full out? In the words of a member of the Iranian Supreme Council,
"We need time to have 60,000 centrifuges".
In other words, they appear to have no intention of stopping. Negotiations with the Russians have been halted indefinately, and as equipment is built, the process will only go faster. So again, what do we do? I suppose I could ask this every week. Sanctions are weak at best, and only serve to punish the people and solidify their prejudice against the sanctioners... Force? I am not sure if this is a great time. With the cafuffle over religious cartoons (and rightfully so) on top of the already thinly stretched tension in the Middle East, conflict is one of the last things I can see beign productive...
Remember my poll on the sidebar. Go ahead... vote :)
posted by Zaphod at 7:44 AM
<< Home