Iran Uranium Enrichment Fouls Religious Environment

A Shi'ite nuclear bomb poses a doomsday threat to Israel and Sunni Muslims. The U.S. war in Iraq must be accomplishing a certain level of comfort in Iraq because Shia and Sunnis feel comfortable enough to concentrate on fighting each other. The U.S. has created an environment where a power struggle for control of a new, post-Saddam Iraq has developed between Shi'ite Muslims and Sunni Muslims.

Just as Shi'ite Iran supplied Hezbollah with plenty of missiles to attack Israel from Lebanon, they would only need to provide a handful of nukes to devastate Israel. That simply cannot be allowed to happen under any circumstances. Of course Sunni Muslims throughout the Middle East should feel every bit as threatened as Israel because the Shi'ites have equal contempt for them. Osama bin Laden is a devout Sunni Muslim and so were the Islamofascists that attacked New York and the Pentagon. However, the U.S. cannot sit back and hope that the religious wars among Sunni, Shi'ite and Judaism will not also target the Christian West. Unfortunately, a Shi'ite nuke changes everything. And although Shi'ites see Sunnis and Christians as infidels, they might not be above handing a nuke to a bin Laden Sunni nut for use on us.

Iran is also giving commercial nuclear power a bad name by its claim to be enriching uranium for civilian purposes only, when everyone knows better. Although Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), the U.N. Security Council has threatened economic and diplomatic sanctions if their uranium enrichment program is not halted. Of course, a similar U.N. position did not deter Saddam Hussein from being a threat. This situation shows the importance of the Bush Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) because it would eliminate the need for Iran to enrich uranium and would provide them with fission fuel.

If Iran insists on moving forward with its nuclear weapons program, then Sunni, Israeli or U.S. forces will probably be forced to duplicate the Baghdad Osirak facility experience, which was crippled by Israeli aircraft in 1981 in a preemptive strike to prevent Saddam Hussein from using the reactor for the creation of nuclear weapons. (See also: "Iran Rejects Offer For Nuclear Talks," The Washington Post)