Iran and the IAEA

The lead article in today’s New York Times, “U.N. Agency Says Iran Data Points to A-Bomb Work,” should provide the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back in terms of confirming that nation’s dedicated effort to build a nuclear weapon.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is typically cautious in making these types of assessments — it pointed out the inconclusive nature of the evidence when the United States was making its famed faulty case against Iraq — so that makes their opinion even more damning. With over a thousand pages of material, including evidence from ten separate countries and independent observers, the report provides a “menu” of the steps needed to make a nuclear weapon and details Iran’s efforts on each one.

The question then becomes what to do about it? Sanctions have proved largely ineffective and even the “Stuxnet” computer worm created by the U.S. and Israel only slowed the project down for a few years.

Israel, as the likely recipient of any nuclear strike, has to be getting a bit antsy. They are not reluctant to use force at the best of times, and the existence of their entire population is at stake here. While things may be theoretical for the U.S., in Israel, they are very real. One wonders what day soon, picking up the newspaper, we will read about a new convulsion in the Middle East.