Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Here We Go Again, Folks
It is clear to me that this whole Iranian nuclear threat has been greatly oversold. a) Our own intelligence community (I guess that there are close to 20 agencies now) has essentially admitted it (http://www.newsweek.com/intelligence-agencies-say-no-new-nukes-iran-79143). b) The Iranians have consistently complied with both the nonproliferation treaty and the safeguards agreement that had been put forward by the I.A.E.A.. And c) the Iranians have only been enriching uranium at the 3.6% (for industrial electricity) and 20% (for a few medical isotope reactors) levels (over 90% enrichment is needed for a weapon and that doesn't even address the equally sticky issues of warheads and delivery). To say that the media has fallen down on this while the war machine continues to punch out propaganda is a major understatement and a troubling one.
Agreed. Additionally, there is
ReplyDeletemuch more
involved than simply having a load of highly enriched uranium.
Trigger technology involves sophisticated spherical geometry
and devices capable of uniform
performance at ten millionths of
a second. Nuclear wannabees have
sought krytron and similar items
(Israel managed to smuggle many from the US in the mid eighties)
IMO, the intel people should, and probably do, monitor that technology rather than barrels of yellowcake.
The media is part and parcel of the war machine. War sells better than peace.
ReplyDeleteIf you listen to guys like Charles Krauthammer, you'd think that going from 3.6% to 94% was as easy as switching on a light-bulb.
ReplyDeleteKrauthammer is no scientist.
ReplyDeleteHe's the smartest guy in the room, Jerry. I know this 'cause he tells me so. Often.
ReplyDeleteIn the long run, I guess, it doesn't matter how smart he is, what matters is how many people believe what he is saying.
ReplyDeleteYou don't have to be right, you have to be believed.
ReplyDelete