Bombing Iran

Why does anyone listen to the foreign policy ramblings of John Bolton? This is a guy who, prior to becoming the mouthpiece for the neocon underground and the worst US ambassador to the UN ever was once seen running around the halls Ukraine Hotel in Moscow shouting at his assistant about some missing papers - allegedly in his briefs. His continuing desire to bomb Iran - and the media's fascination with the former half-term governor of Alaska who incorrectly (as usual) attributes his statements to poor old Pat Buchanan - is counterproductive and tiresome.

Let's reiterate a couple of not so unimportant points. The enrichment of uranium to a percentage that can be used for reactor and medical purposes is permitted by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Period. Iran has not been as open to inspectors as the International Atomic Energy Agency would like, but there still remains no credible evidence that Iran is anywhere near creating weapon's grade nuclear material.

Furthermore, President Ahmadinejad's order last week that created such hand wringing in the West directing the engineers at Natanz to begin attempting to enrich uranium to 19.75% for fuel at its only reactor which also produces medical isotopes that are fully consumed is not a directive to create atomic weapons. And - by the way - the government also provided notice to the International Atomic Energy Agency, also as required by the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Incidentally, why is the US so terrified of a country whose economy is in shambles and has a military budget smaller than Finland's? The US faced down the Soviet Union - but neocons and their ilk behave like craven cowards when faced with fourth rate military powers which can be obliterated in a nano-second or incompetent terrorists.

Sanctions of one sort of another will follow merely because everyone has lost trust in the Iranian regime. Fair enough. But let's stop listening to the pronouncements of advocates of failed military policies and especially giving any attention to the remarks of Sarah Palin who might be the least intelligent former government official on the planet and who is considered - aside from that Very Important Pundit David Broder in the Washington Post - by the vast majority of Americans unqualified to be POTUS.