The Canadian daily Toronto Star wrote on May 17, 2008: Ahamdinejad calculates that Bush is on the way out, Barack Obama and a gentler diplomacy are on the way in, and all Iran has to do is play for time and squirrel away the 20 kilos of enriched U-235 it needs to build its bomb.
Maybe. But Israel has attacked Iraqi and Syrian reactors. And Bush told the Knesset that letting Iran get the bomb would be “an unforgivable betrayal of future generations.” He also managed to suggest Obama is an appeaser on Iran. So the Washington clock may be ticking. Even Obama regards Iran as hostile to the U.S., a sponsor of terror, and a meddler in Iraq.
For years, the U.S. military has been “gaming” a strike at Iran’s Bushehr, Natanz and other nuclear facilities. If Israel needs help, Bush could be the president to oblige.
And this might be no “surgical” strike at a reactor or two. The U.S. might target Iran’s military command, communications, missile launchers, aircraft and airfields, to blunt any counter-strike at Israel.
The Iranians would rearm, of course, but they’d be set back years. Ahamdinejad is playing the fool, defying the UN, allowing Iran to become a U.S. campaign issue and racing to get a bomb.