Attacking Iran

Few would claim that Iran is a pleasant place in which to live, nowadays. It was pretty gruesome under the Shah, when there was no free speech and the secret police were licensed torturers and murderers, but under the present management it isn't much fun, either.
It is impossible for the people to behave normally without attracting the attention of those who rule in a manner that has much to do with self-important intolerance (as in some other places, alas). President Bush and others say that Iran presents a nuclear threat to Israel, which possesses some 200 nuclear bombs, all deliverable by US-supplied strike aircraft.
The US Congressional Research Service, whose analysts are world-class intellectuals and therefore unpopular with those Washington senators and congressmen who do not want their convictions upset by facts, has just produced a report on Iran's nuclear programme. Its author notes that "Iran continues at its Natanz centrifuge facility to enrich uranium, expand the number of operating centrifuges, and conduct research on new types of centrifuges. Tehran has also continued to produce centrifuge feedstock, as well as work on its heavy-water reactor and associated facilities. Whether Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons programme is, however, unknown. A National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) made public in December 2007 assessed that Tehran "halted its nuclear weapons programme," defined as "Iran's nuclear weapon design and weaponisation work and covert uranium conversion-related and uranium enrichment related work," in 2003. The estimate, however, also assessed that Tehran is "keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons" and that any decision to end a nuclear weapons programme is "inherently reversible."
Lots of processes are reversible, but who can blame the US intelligence people for having a bit of a bet-hedge, when their product has been in the past so wilfully warped and criminally misapplied by dedicated warmongers?
The official NIE finding that Iran's has "halted its nuclear its weapons programme" is irrelevant. Israel wants to attack Iran, and the Bush administration regards its plan with favour. And among all the reportage and speculation about an Israeli strike came the usual bellicose statements from assorted dignitaries, one of whom, the commander of the nuclear-armed, cruise missile-equipped Fifth Fleet which is bustling energetically around the Persian Gulf, said on July 1 that in the event of being attacked Iran "will not be allowed to close" the Strait of Hormuz. How fascinating.