The Bombs of Iran

Tehran, capitol city of Iran, at night

Iran and America have sat down, again, to talk about atomic bombs.

An atomic bomb is a dirty business. From Albert Einstein’s little equation E = MC² (and of course a few other things added on, it’s not really that simple) a bomb can be created through a lot of hard work and with a lot of money and manpower. When you blow it up, all you see is a blinding flash of light, and then you are dead. Of course, that is if you are lucky. If you are close enough to the blast sight, the “Ground Zero” where the actual bomb is, there is not even a flash of light or an explosion, you are just dead. For those further away, things are even worse. If you do not get “disappeared” on explosion, you get a living death, a horrible torture as you die slowly from the effects.

Officially Iran does not have one of these atomic bombs. And officially they do not even want to make one. They claim to only want to use nuclear power as a source of energy for their civilization. Russia is mixed up in the works, (of course) having recently announced they will be building power plants there.

It takes many, many nuclear centrifuges to build a bomb. Estimates as to what Iran has in that way, (assuming, as no one knows otherwise, that they do not already have a bomb) range from 8,000 to 19,000. At the high number, it would take them about a year, barring any of what former Speaker of the House and Republican Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich called “planned accidents” (scientists turning up dead, things getting blown up, etc. that slow down the production) to create a bomb. At the low number, it could only take about five months.

The Iranians sit a place that would be uncomfortable for anyone. ISIS is not exactly on the other side of the globe where they are, and upheaval, even in their own country, and especially in those surrounding them, is not uncommon. More like expected. To make matters worse for them, sanctions have been heaped on their heads in recent years by the West, and especially America, hurting their economy.

Israel is also nearby. A country attacked and buffeted constantly, just recently by the horrible attacks on the synagogue, Israeli operatives would not think twice before helping those unplanned "accidents" along.

Of course Iran is an overwhelmingly Muslim country, and not known to be one for moderation. It does not sit very high on the list of "Human Rights Lovers" of the world.

In the last presidential election cycle Iran chose Mr.  Rouhani, who many people were happy about because he was perceived as a non-radical, and willing to play ball. But he is not the head man calling the shots.  Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the supreme head, and it is up to him, ultimately, what deals are signed.

Of course, Iran is a country at the fringe of the world power. They certainly were not at the G20 last weekend when all the big boys and girls showed up for the prom. They are not a major dealer in power in the world. And they know that. And while Iran says it does not want a nuclear bomb, which not everyone believes, they also must know that a country with a nuclear bomb, and the power kill millions of people within a few seconds is someone you have to pay attention to.

It does not mean they would be constantly reminding everyone of it. Nor that they would fire it at North Korea because they took some of their people hostages, if that were to ever happen. But it would have a more restraining effect. Sort of like an old Western saloon, where all the men respected each other, because they were all wearing six shooters. Just think of this as a sort of improved revolver, kept in a bigger holster. Of course, a six shooter in the wrong hands could prove deadly. In the old West is was the cause of more than one massacre. An atomic bomb in the wrongs hands could be incalculably worse. We have seen big weapons in the hands of the wrong men before.

Andrew C. Abbot