Investor's Business Daily, April 9th, 2007
Axis Of Evil: Iran's leader giddily claimed Monday that his nation has joined the nuclear club -- a membership the civilized world should revoke as soon as possible.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared that Iran can now produce nuclear fuel on an "industrial scale." Tehran reportedly has added roughly 1,000 of the centrifuges used to produce enriched uranium. The regime claims it will have 3,000 centrifuges installed by May.
Alarmingly, it has room for 54,000 at its nuclear facility in Natanz, a number that suggests it's more interested in nuclear weapons than nuclear energy.
Anyone who thought the Iranian threat wasn't serious needs to reassess. With those centrifuges humming, Tehran could have enough nuclear material to make a bomb by 2009. That's about six years sooner than some previous U.S. intelligence estimates, though it's also a year later than Iran's own prediction.
Either way, if the West and Iran's peaceful Mideast neighbors fail to act soon, they'll be dealing with a nuclear-armed Islamofascist regime.
If you think the United Nations will halt this madness, think again. Tehran's already in violation of U.N. demands (in reality nothing more than suggestions) that it halt its uranium enrichment program. Yet Iran presses on. Ahmadinejad regards sanctions voted against Tehran by the U.N. Security Council to be "torn pieces of paper" and insists the council itself has "no legitimacy."
No, it'll take more than toothless diplomacy to meet and defuse this threat. It'll take bold leadership and Churchillian resolve.
Maybe it will come from Europe, where a surprising majority favor attacking Iran to prevent it from securing an atomic bomb. A poll taken last month for Open Europe, a London-based think tank, found 52% of Europeans agreed that "we must stop countries like Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, even if that means taking military action." Only 40% disagreed.
Of the 27 EU nations in which the poll was conducted, the use of force was supported by majorities in 18. They include Great Britain and France -- yes, France. The nine nations that don't see as clearly include Germany and Spain, which has been a victim of bloody Islamic terrorism.
With membership, they say, comes privileges. If so, it's wise to get rid of the unwelcome member of the nuclear club before it uses those privileges for the wrong purposes. As unpleasant as the expulsion might be, the alternative would be far, far worse.
Copyright 2007 Investor's Business Daily, Inc.
