20060211
    As if any more evidence of Iran’s intent to build nuclear weapons is needed, today Iran’s president threatened to withdraw Iran from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in response to the nation’s referral by the International Atomic Energy Agency to the UN Security Council.
    The situation with Iran is one that continues to rapidly slide toward the kinds of non-diplomatic solutions described in this weblog and elsewhere. There can be little doubt remaining that the government of Iran- remember that includes its so-called president and the ruling ayatollahs- is intent on building nuclear weapons and thereby provoking a confrontation with the world, especially the Western nations and Israel.
    That being the case, when does the situation at hand reach critical mass? When does a nation like Israel, the US, Britain, or even France decide that the threat of a nuclear Iran is enough to act, even unilaterally. This is the very real and growing situation that the world faces every second that passes since Iran restarted its uranium enrichment program.
    The questions that now remain are ones of will and capacity, both of which must be resolved and developed before this menace can come to fruition. Amazingly, both will and capacity are not limited by their unavailability but by the fact that so many do not yet comprehend or accept the nature of the threat arrayed against them.
    Therein lies the greatest part of the threat Iranian nuclear weapons pose, that is the apathy of those threatened by Iran to do something about the threat. This apathy lies not only at the level of governments but also at the level of ordinary citizens. Despite the rhetoric and the so-called diplomacy, Iran is being allowed by the world to pursue the development and building of a nuclear weapon because not enough people care that they are doing so.
    For those who do care, the mission that remains is to develop the kind of awareness and support that is necessary to bring this threat to the level of attention that something is done about it before Iran has a nuclear weapon, or worse, before it uses one. If the world allows that situation to come to fruition, then perhaps we all get what we deserve for our apathy.
DLH
Governments know that Iranian sympathizers around the world will react violently if they think Iran is threatened in any way. I think they are afraid of what may happen. I also think the people don’t believe that Iran will follow through on her threats, therefore, in shades of the 60’s, if we serve tea and cookies to them they will play nice.