Iran's Nuke Progress May Be Literal Vaporware

According to the BBC

Iran may have used stocks of high-quality uranium gas - or uranium hexafluoride gas - [procured from China in 1991] to speed up a breakthrough in enrichment, diplomats say.

This would explain how Iran suddenly was able to accomplish the enrichment phase despite a number of technological problems believed to beset the program. It also demonstrates (assuming these sources are right) that countries are indeed willing to exaggerate the danger they pose to the West even in the face of an American military attack.

Why they do this probably has a number of explanations - regional prestige probably the most compelling. Iran's direct defiance of the U.S. only adds to this prestige, even as it further erodes America's prestige, particularly in the wake of our Iraq debacle. But this is hardly sufficient reason for us to use military force.

Still, Iran's continued baiting of the U.S. seems rather reckless given what we've done next door. However poorly executed the Iraq Attaq might have been, we proved one thing for sure: we can destroy a country but good. And that's while trying to not to destroy it - to save it in fact, spending hundreds of billions trying to rebuild it. Imagine if we just tried to destroy it. And that was with less than 150,000 troops and conventional weapons. So while I sincerely hope we don't decide to solve this issue diplomatically, I also would think some of these countries might tread just a little lightly when confronting the U.S.A.