Iran Speeds Up Peace/Bomb Quest

Five to ten! Ten to 15! Estimates of how long it will take for Iran to get a nuke are all over the board, so much so that when I quoted Iranian propaganda stating that they'd have one right about now, a commenter ridiculed me.

Turns out their propaganda might be more accurate than most of the estimates, according to the LATimes:

If engineers encounter no major technical problems, Iran could manufacture enough highly enriched uranium to build a bomb within three years, much more quickly than the common estimate of five to 10 years, the diplomats said.

That's a big if. The nuclear scientists/swashbuckers at what James Lileks once refered to as the Ayatolla Khomehni Center for Peaceful Nuclear Research and the Elimination of Israel have had plenty of technical problems.

But the renegade nuke-docs are moving forward with dispatch because their Religion of Peace Mullah leaders are Hell-bent on peaceful nuclear energy NOW!

Diplomats and experts say Iran has forgone usual testing periods for individual centrifuges and small series of linked centrifuges, instead apparently trying to put together as many as possible, as quickly as possible.

Faced with new nuke threat and the need to respond quickly and dicisively, the people of the world turned to the UN and found:

Even as Iran apparently moves forward, diplomatic efforts to persuade it to halt its nuclear work appeared to be faltering in the face of distrust among powerful Security Council members and disagreements over the best strategy.

Besides, the seating arrangement at the conference table hasn't been finalized, so how can we expect any real progress so quickly? Give them five to 10 years to work it out. No, better make it 10 to 15.