THE CLOCK IS TICKING

Iran rejects deal to ship out their enriched uranium to Russia for further enriching is the big news of the day, as far as I am concerned.

Western negotiators and government leaders had hoped that this could be an artful solution to the fact that the Iranians had enriched their uranium in contravention of the agreements within the framework of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaties. They would be allowed to keep their ill gotten gains, so to speak, enriched under Russian supervision to the level necessary for use in a nuclear reactor, for purposes of generating power, which the Iranians claim is the reason they have been enriching the uranium in the first place. If they were really trying to make it 'weapons grade', then the enrichment done by the Russians would be insufficient. Under the agreement everyone would save face, and the threat of further sanctions against Iran by the international community, or an Israeli attack on their nuclear installations, would be averted.

I have believed all along, and many people far more intelligent and knowledgeable than I am about the region have also said, that the Iranians were simply stalling for time. Given enough time, they could complete the necessary enrichment of enough uranium to complete a working nuclear weapon. By extending negotiations as long as possible they could give themselves that time, as well as sowing discord and disagreement among the international community.

At some point, the Israelis will decide that they can wait no longer, and they will attack. In order to succeed, they will need to access Iraqi airspace, now controlled by the United States. What will the President do?