One Voice of Reason on Iran... but who is listening?
I really enjoy reading Gwynne Dyer. I find that he is a fair correspondant with the appropriate background in the military to be able to make the smart and balanced statements the the majority of pundits can not. In my opinion, he is a journalist that is able to see and tell it the way it is:
"Iran's activities nevertheless remained legal under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, since all the early steps towards a nuclear weapons capability -- essentially, developing the ability to enrich uranium or to reprocess plutonium -- are identical to those you would take if you just wanted to have the full fuel cycle for civilian nuclear power generation under your own national control.
And if Iran's major goal is the ability to deter attack if Pakistani nuclear weapons fall into the wrong hands, it is probably only seeking a "threshold" nuclear weapons capability for now: That is, to get to the point where it could build the actual weapons in six months or so, if the local strategic situation suddenly went really bad.
There are many other counties with this kind of "threshold" capacity, from Japan and Brazil to Sweden and South Africa.
It's a perfectly legal position to occupy, and given that Iran lives under the shadow of Israeli, American, Russian and Indian nuclear weapons as well as Pakistani ones, it's not unreasonable for Tehran to want to get there.
There is obviously a diplomatic deal to be made here -- if anybody's interested."
Source from Hamilton Spectator
"Iran's activities nevertheless remained legal under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, since all the early steps towards a nuclear weapons capability -- essentially, developing the ability to enrich uranium or to reprocess plutonium -- are identical to those you would take if you just wanted to have the full fuel cycle for civilian nuclear power generation under your own national control.
And if Iran's major goal is the ability to deter attack if Pakistani nuclear weapons fall into the wrong hands, it is probably only seeking a "threshold" nuclear weapons capability for now: That is, to get to the point where it could build the actual weapons in six months or so, if the local strategic situation suddenly went really bad.
There are many other counties with this kind of "threshold" capacity, from Japan and Brazil to Sweden and South Africa.
It's a perfectly legal position to occupy, and given that Iran lives under the shadow of Israeli, American, Russian and Indian nuclear weapons as well as Pakistani ones, it's not unreasonable for Tehran to want to get there.
There is obviously a diplomatic deal to be made here -- if anybody's interested."
Source from Hamilton Spectator
