Rod Liddle at the London Times says the West may have to bomb Natanz, the place where even the Mullahs and the UN now admit that Iran is enriching uranium for nuclear bombs.

"The Natanz facility is partially underground, a fact that provoked the IAEA inspectors to note, rather drily, that this was 'inconsistent' with the Iranian claims that the plant was solely for the purpose of manufacturing mildly enriched uranium for benignly commercial purposes.

Equally anomalous to this defence is the fact that those same inspectors found particles of extremely enriched uranium at Natanz, the sort of stuff you need to make atomic bombs. Presented with this evidence, the Iranians shuffled their feet a little, looked at the ground and then announced that maybe they hadn't washed the equipment thoroughly when they bought it from the Pakistanis and consequently there was still the odd bit of weapons—grade material kicking around, sorry about that, you know how it is, can't get the help, etc."

Why pick on Iran? Why not bomb India, Pakistan, France and Israel for their nuclear capacities?

... there is still a large tranche of the western world that believes with bovine obduracy that because we and the Americans and the French and the Israelis have nukes, why shouldn't poor old Third World Iran? Fair play to the burka boys, don't you think? The answer is simple and yet — in some quarters — quite unsayable: because it is Iran.

Ahmadinejad with nukes is different from Jacques Chirac with nukes — and we don't have to like Chirac. The only question is, does Jacques Chirac hunger for holy martyrdom for himself and his people? And the obvious French answer is: C'est imb ile, tu idiot plein de merde. But not old Mahmoud. Every day he gives out the same message: Israel and the West must be destroyed. Martyrdom is the answer.  Khomeinist Iran must become the new superpower, leading fundamentalist Islam to world conquest.

If you really want to know the mental space these folks inhabit, take a look at this AP photo of  "Dancers performing as they hold capsules of uranium hexafluoride during a ceremony in Mashad, Iran, on Tuesday." 

Then tell yourself they can't be serious.

How many times does Ahmadinejad have to say it?  Mad Mahmoud is sitting on top of the oil spigot of the world, the Persian Gulf. If you think that's a greedy and selfish thing to say, stop driving right now. Don't turn on your lights,  your TV, radio, and internet. Throw out your PC, and stop taking aspirin and other medicines. Don't use anything made out of plastic. They all use Gulf oil. 

And if you want somebody to blame, look at the way the West has castrated itself. We have extirpated our own energy sources to please Green zealots. When the Left goes ballistic over any military attack on Natanz, remind them of  exactly who has made us so dependent on Hitlerite fanatics. 

Liddle writes:

One way or another we will need to get to grips with Natanz quite soon. I may not want to live in a world with nuclear weapons — but I really don't want to live in a world where Iran has nuclear weapons.

James Lewis    4 30 06