I almost forgot about these guys. So a quick pair of stories just to let you all know what’s happening in Iraq’s nutty neighbor. Apparently they’ve started on those centrifuges they shouldn’t have.
Iran has set up two cascades of 164 centrifuges each in its underground nuclear plant, laying a basis for full-scale enrichment of uranium and upping the stakes in a standoff with the West, European diplomats said on Monday.
The cascades were to be vacuum-tested shortly, without uranium feedstock inside, and fuel material would then be added if the trial runs were successful, they said.
The 328 centrifuges would be the vanguard of 3,000 planned for installation in the coming months.
Now, in all seriousness, this could be more than a little problematic. Naturally, Iran is still insisting that it’s all for civilian atomic power, but when you’re repeatedly stepping over the line and antagonizing the world at large, it does not help your case that you mean it peacefully. Tough to insist that you mean something in peace when you’re on the offensive.
I don’t like to call people crazy, though. I find it’s unfair and it’s used nearly always as an insult rather than a descriptor. So imagine my pain and torment at trying to think up an adjective to describe Iran now that they’re claiming they have a cure for AIDS, and… it’s herbal.
Along with the claim of nuclear “rights,” Ahmadinejad was set to tout a purported “herbal” cure for AIDS, the news agency Fars reported.
“The drug named ‘IMOD’ is completely effective and safe with no proven side effects,” Iran’s Minister of Health Kamran Bagheri Lankarani said.
The report could not be verified.
Well no shit it couldn’t. I’m hoping that it turns out it’s something incredibly asinine, like a plant they just had lying around that supposedly cures AIDS just by putting it in a tea. The less scientific their “discovery” is, the happier I’ll be. Simply for comedy’s sake.
Don’t get me wrong, a cure for AIDS would be great, but this is just absurd.
How has Iran “antagonized the world at large?”
Please explain what exactly Iran has done. Even if they are looking for nuclear weapons, why can’t they have them? If I were named as part of the Axis of Evil, surrounded by countries that are either occupied or working closely with the US, and watched one leg of that axis get invaded and destroyed, I’d want nuclear weapons too.
Taking the cure for AIDS claim out of it, I wonder how it seems that Hanlon’s Razor has bought into the Iran hype?
It’s a matter of looking at what the “world at large” would like from you, and then purposefully pushing that line. A world leary of a nuclear Iran is not going to like it when said Iran gets a slew of centrifuges.
I’m a supporter of Iran’s right to have nuclear power, and to an extent their right to have nuclear weapons (though the latter I’m wary about). However, purposefully and intentionally going about the pursuit of such in a way that will draw the ire of the other countries will not win favor easily.
It’s all a matter of balance between their rights as a nation and the most responsible path to getting them.
President Ahmadinejad’s real views are summarized on this website: ahmadinejadquotes.blogspot.com
Good find, Al. There’s a lot of good stuff in there. Meanwhile our president keeps tripping over words with more than two syllables. 2008 can’t come soon enough.