Axxman300
Philosopher
If this was any other board, I'd be happy to sit this thread out. We have members who have worked on nuclear weapons projects, and or have handled nuclear weapons in their time in military service. Nuclear weapons are a big deal. Every country who develops their own finds out that they are a headache to possess, test, store, secure, and maintain. Iran has a nuclear weapons program that should have produced a simple warhead twenty years ago. Nobody outside of two floors at Langley, and a floor at Vauxhall Cross every wondered why this was true. I suspect Mossad can say why. US strategy toward Iran, since the release of our hostages in 1981, has been mostly a waiting game. The mullahs, and the IRG have always been a dangerous MINORITY, and over time their power has faded as the world moved on.
The Iranian nuclear program shares much with the Iraqi WMD program(s) in that, while they existed, they didn't seem to produce anything of value. After 1991 the Iraqi WMD program was mostly Kabuki Theater to keep the population in line, and keep the western inspectors guessing. IRG certainly wanted nuclear weapons, and spent the money to build the facilities to make them a reality, yet they've never proceeded beyond a certain point. We've not detected any kind of pre-testing of anything that goes boom. This doesn't mean we ignore Iran's nuclear dreams, and we have not ignored them. The US devotes money and resources to stay on top of the problem. What Obama's NSC saw was the DoS, and other government agencies were happily using the Iranian nuclear threat to get additional financing, and leverage in negotiations with neighboring countries. So they decided a different approach with Tehran, and it might have worked. The US Senate wouldn't ratify Obama's treaty because the GOP had begun it's decent into its post-Bush/9-11 madness, but not on merit.
Don't misunderstand me. Had the Iranians produced a nuclear weapon we were never going to wait for Israel, or anyone else. But our actions would not look like this, not the mayhem we've unleashed under this president. But the issue is the viability of the Iranian nuclear weapons program even a year ago. What were we told? Two years away? Based on what intel? Where's that briefing with satellite photos, intercepted communications, statements from key defectors? It took the US four years to produce our first atomic bombs, something that the brain-trust at Lawrence-Livermore labs in Berkeley, CA assessed that any country with the capability of mass-producing compact cars could also do. Iran has been working on nukes are 20+ years with nothing to show for their time, and effort. Like I said, nobody outside of the CIA or MI6 is asking what is taking Iran so long to make an atomic weapon. And maybe that's why the US never broke a sweat over Iran's chest thumping until we elected our diaper-wearing moron into the White House.
The Iranian nuclear program shares much with the Iraqi WMD program(s) in that, while they existed, they didn't seem to produce anything of value. After 1991 the Iraqi WMD program was mostly Kabuki Theater to keep the population in line, and keep the western inspectors guessing. IRG certainly wanted nuclear weapons, and spent the money to build the facilities to make them a reality, yet they've never proceeded beyond a certain point. We've not detected any kind of pre-testing of anything that goes boom. This doesn't mean we ignore Iran's nuclear dreams, and we have not ignored them. The US devotes money and resources to stay on top of the problem. What Obama's NSC saw was the DoS, and other government agencies were happily using the Iranian nuclear threat to get additional financing, and leverage in negotiations with neighboring countries. So they decided a different approach with Tehran, and it might have worked. The US Senate wouldn't ratify Obama's treaty because the GOP had begun it's decent into its post-Bush/9-11 madness, but not on merit.
Don't misunderstand me. Had the Iranians produced a nuclear weapon we were never going to wait for Israel, or anyone else. But our actions would not look like this, not the mayhem we've unleashed under this president. But the issue is the viability of the Iranian nuclear weapons program even a year ago. What were we told? Two years away? Based on what intel? Where's that briefing with satellite photos, intercepted communications, statements from key defectors? It took the US four years to produce our first atomic bombs, something that the brain-trust at Lawrence-Livermore labs in Berkeley, CA assessed that any country with the capability of mass-producing compact cars could also do. Iran has been working on nukes are 20+ years with nothing to show for their time, and effort. Like I said, nobody outside of the CIA or MI6 is asking what is taking Iran so long to make an atomic weapon. And maybe that's why the US never broke a sweat over Iran's chest thumping until we elected our diaper-wearing moron into the White House.
TACO is going to take this humiliation out on some other country in short time? Like Cuba?