Time to Get Serious

The IAEA has reported that test results on residue obtained at a military site in Iran show traces of weapons grade enriched uranium.

At Captain's Quarters.

Whatever the explanation, the implication is crystal clear: the Iranians have weapons-grade uranium somewhere. The gap between the enrichment level of energy-production and weapons-grade material (5% vs 90%+) is so wide that there is no other explanation for the possession of the latter. And with its discovery on equipment used at the former military base at Lavizan -- a site demolished by the Iranians after the US discovered its covert nuclear program -- it confirms that Iran possesses it for military purposes, not peaceful energy production, for which that level of enrichment is unsuitable anyway.

The US should demand an emergency session of the UN Security Council to address this issue, rather than wait for the two weeks Russia and China demanded before this development became known. If Iran has weapons-grade uranium already in its possession, a nuclear device may come much sooner than the common wisdom of five years. Iran may already have started the process of building the weapon itself -- and if so, the world must act now to keep Iran from using it to extort the UN for Iranian purposes.

Nuclear weapons in the hands of sane thinkers solve many problems. In the hands of Ahmadinejad and company, a nuke takes on new and horrifying dimensions.

Jeff Goldstein has more.