[Marxism] NY Times hails Rice offer as aiding drive to bar nuclear "capacity" to Iran by any means necessary

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

And if the Times means what it says, and is not willing to settle for
some kind of face-saving "decent interval" type of agreement, that means
war.  Because only massive bombing, troops, and breaking up the country
can undo the progress that has already established the "capacity" that
the Times says MUST be undone.
Another reminder that the adventurism of the Bush administration is
driven by something far stronger than AIPAC and far more deeply rooted
than the crackpot philosophies of  Perle or Wolfowitz.
Fred Feldman

New York Times
June 3, 2006
Editorial

What Counts on Iran


Smart diplomacy scored a rare victory inside the Bush administration
this week when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced that
Washington was now willing to join nuclear talks with Iran, if Iran
would agree to suspend its enrichment and reprocessing activities.
Whether or not Iran ultimately agrees to talk under these conditions,
the United States has already strengthened its hand with European
allies, Russia and China, all of whose support would be needed for any
successful resolution of the Iranian nuclear crisis.

The Russians, Chinese, Europeans and Americans quickly followed up
Secretary Rice's announcement with agreement on a new tactical approach.
It would, for now, suspend discussions of Security Council sanctions and
instead offer a jointly agreed set of incentives aimed at persuading
Tehran to suspend nuclear work and come to the bargaining table. If Iran
spurns that conciliatory approach, Washington is sure to put sanctions
back on the international agenda.

The next few days and weeks will be delicate. Iran makes much of its
right, under international law, to enrich uranium for power plants. But
it is much less eager to talk about its unambiguous obligation, under
the same treaty, not to abuse that right for purposes of building
nuclear weapons. Its current enrichment programs threaten to cross that
critical line. Tehran would not be giving up any rights by suspending
enrichment-related activities. It has already done so twice before. Many
other countries with exactly the same legal right to enrichment and
reprocessing have wisely chosen not to engage in those problematic
activities.

There is only one successful resolution worth talking about - a
verifiable commitment by Iran not to develop the capacity to build
nuclear weapons. Whether this comes about through incentives,
punishments or some combination of the two does not matter very much, so
long as it comes about.


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