Well, sorta.

Today, I went to an “AEI event”:http://aei.org/events/eventID.1850,filter.all,type.past/event_detail.asp where Bolton and Gary Milhollin were speaking about Iran’s nuclear program. Long story short, it looks like Bolton has essentially thrown in the towel on Iran. He thinks Tehran will inevitably acquire nuclear weapons and that the only possible way to stop this is by attacking its nuclear facilities – an action that, in Bolton’s opinion, neither the Bush nor Obama administrations will take. Therefore, he argues, the United States and its allies need to think about ways to deter and contain Tehran, though he is not sanguine about that course of action.

Now, I said “sorta” at the beginning because Bolton still thinks that the United States _should_ have been more hardline on Tehran in the past and, as I noted above, that military force is a good idea.

Happy Tuesday.

Whatever one thinks about Iran, this bit from D Ross makes no sense:

bq. We need to offer political, economic and security benefits to Tehran, on the condition that *Iran change its behavior not just on nukes but on terrorism* as well. Sticks will show Iran what it stands to lose by going nuclear; carrots will show its leaders what they would gain by moderating their behavior.

Leaving aside the fact that neither Iran nor the intelligence community say that Tehran is going nuclear, conditioning “carrots”:http://www.newsweek.com/id/171256?from=rss (God, please kill that stupid metaphor) on terrorism does not show Iran what it will gain if it complies with the United States’ nuclear demands but does nothing on terrorism.

Meaning, the documents given to the IAEA about the now-famous “alleged studies” on Green Salt, RVs, etc. that the DG “keeps”:http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Board/2008/gov2008-15.pdf talking “about”:http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Board/2008/gov2008-38.pdf in his reports.

Iran sent a “letter”:http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Infcircs/2008/infcirc737.pdf in September to the IAEA which provides some interesting details about what the documents (PowerPoint presentations, in at least some cases) actually consist of. I know it’s just their word, etc., but still…

ISIS “has it.”:http://www.isis-online.org/publications/iran/iaea-iranreport-111908.pdf

ISIS recently beta-launched a “new site”:http://www.isisnucleariran.org/ called ISIS Nuclear Iran. It has a trove of documents and other hot Iran nuclear action.

From what I understand, they want feedback. So check it out. Comments can be sent to ISISNuclearIran@gmail.com.

Personally, I am digging the “From the Sky”:http://www.isisnucleariran.org/from-the-sky/ feature, which is an “interactive tool…developed using Google maps that allows users to see a broad, annotated overview of Iran’s facilities.”

CFR.org has a good lineup of Iran experts “grappling”:http://blogs.cfr.org/forum/ with questions like “WTF do we do about Iran’s nuclear program?” Only they’re more articulate. (You will all doubtless be shocked to learn that I am not a CFR member.)

In another “food-related conflict,”:http://www.totalwonkerr.net/1745/iran-the-sammitch-war Tehran and Washington are “clashing over pistachios:”:http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE49806E20081009

KERMAN PROVINCE, Iran (Reuters) – For some Iranians, it’s a galling thought: the United States may oust Iran as the world’s largest producer of pistachio nuts this year because of one of the worst harvests ever in the Islamic Republic.

[snip]

The United States has more than doubled production in the last decade to 416 million pounds (about 190,000 tons) in 2007, most of it in California. With a good pistachio year usually followed by a weaker harvest, California’s output is expected to fall to 260-270 million pounds in 2008 but this would still be more than many are forecasting in Iran.

Iran, however, maintains that size doesn’t much matter, at least when it comes to pistachio harvests:

bq. U.S. producers might use water and land more effectively but Iranian farmers say nobody can rival the taste of their pistachios, which are also used in sweets and ice-creams.

At least they’re not fighting if they’re comparing their nuts…

You didn’t see this coming, did you?

“According to “:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7675281.stm the BBC,

Cooks in Iran have tried to assemble the world’s largest ostrich sandwich at a food festival in Tehran, as part of a bid to promote healthy eating.

The organisers want to promote Iran’s fledgling ostrich farming business.

About 1,500 cooks used 1,000kg (2,200lbs) of ostrich meat to make the 1,500m (4,920ft) long sandwich.

I eat no bird flesh, but “this video”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7675871.stm makes that sammitch look badass.

The Security Council adopted it yesterday. Full text is “here.”:http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2008/sc9459.doc.htm

It reaffirms the previous resolutions about Iran and

bq. Calls upon Iran to comply fully and without delay with its obligations under the above-mentioned resolutions of the Security Council, and to meet the requirements of the IAEA Board of Governors;

No new sanctions, though.

In a shocking turn of events that no one could have predicted, ISIS has some good “commentary”:http://www.isis-online.org/publications/iran/ISIS_Report_Iran_15September2008.pdf about the latest IAEA report on Iran, as well as the “report”:http://www.isis-online.org/publications/iran/IAEA_Iran_Report_15September2008.pdf itself.

Speaking of ISIS…