by Cheryl Rofer
One of the things we discuss in our WhirledView editorial meetings is how much repetition is justifiable in our posts. By and large, we're not much for repetition. But given the discussion in the blogosphere last week about this trope in the MSM, and given that the MSM is right back there with their nuclear fantasies, I guess I'll repeat.
It is not possible to build a nuclear weapon with 3.49% enriched uranium, which is what Iran has.
It is not possible to enrich that reactor-grade uranium to weapons-grade without throwing the IAEA inspectors out of Natanz.
There is a bunch of other expertise beyond enrichment that is needed to build a bomb. We don't know if Iran has that expertise. [This is not a repetition of what I've written recently, but I thought it might be worth saying.]
Ergo, Iran does not have the capability of building a bomb, and is not close to building one. We will know if they want to do this when they throw the IAEA inspectors out, as North Korea did.
That's pretty much what Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said on the Sunday Morning Talk, but Admiral Mike Mullen repeated the MSM line. And the MSM has featured Mullen's version, Gates's a second thought, if at all. (One tiresome example here.)
I'm really wondering now why the MSM is so stuck on the line that Iran has the capability to make a bomb, asap. Is it just that reportorial herd instinct? Is it a last-ditch effort to sell more dead trees? They're all card-carrying members of Likud?
I sent e-mails to the ombudsmans at the New York Times and Washington Post last week. No reply so far. Maybe I'll do it again today.
What I said earlier, and an addendum.
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