Report circulating that Iran has agreed to send LEU [lightly enriched uranium] to Russia for processing, with indications that this retards their progress towards developing the bomb by about a year and this all hailed as possible 'diplomatic' success in attempt to thwart Iran's nuclear aspirations - to which I say 'are you people fucking crazy?'.
One, there's probably, in fact there's almost definitely no way to tell that if Iran actually follows through on this [huge if as far as I'm concerned] that the amount of enriched uranium they end up sending off to Russia represents a significant dent in their stockpile, enough to impede development of the bomb - and there's a good reason for this ie we have no idea how much EU they have! Whatever they end up shipping to Russia could just be a token amount - in fact, if they're really clever they could have been planning for this deception all along, carefully making it seem like they had a certain amount of EU when it fact they have more. And let's not forget that there are rumours that problems exist with some of Iran's LEU, problems that make it unsuitable for bomb making - I read this in technical journal and the details of it were beyond my understanding - but if true, if that compromised LEU is what they end up sending to Russia, then such an act would be pretty useless, no?
Two, the current regime in Iran is under siege, vulnerable, supposed progressive forces want to see it unseated and brought to shame - what on earth would be the advantage to them of looking weak on an issue they have staked a great amount of their credibility and prestige on? The whole focus of their anti-Western, anti-Israel international position has been buttressed up by the threat of a nuclear inevitability - how the fuck would it serve their purposes to now cave in on that? One would have to indulge the belief that they are at peace with accepting their demise as a political power and willing to admit to being ideologically flawed - pretty selfless acts for revolutionary autocrats. What next, the leader of Hamas is going to proffer a hand of friendship across the bomb scarred border of Gaza and say to Israel: 'enough is enough - let's embrace a better future together'. I mean, c'mon people.
Fact is, the Persian sense of superiority over Arabs and how that impacts their regional strategy combined with the political utility the bomb represents to the current regime combined with the anti-Western logic of the '79 revolution and the ties of all the big players in Iran to that logic - Khamenei, A--- and the Republican Guard - these things all point to Iran wanting the bomb, needing the bomb and probably being willing to do just about anything to get it. Furthermore, it is also a fact that the current regime knows China and Russia will back them because all their respective interests dovetail on this issue - and without China and Russia you've got nothing - so you're telling me you think Russia and China are going to act against their perceived interests and by doing so substantially empower Obama, a leader they no doubt read as enticingly weak? Again, are you people outta your fucking minds?
World, here's a hand-basket and if you look just over there you'll see the road to hell - have a nice trip.
