Juan Cole: “Iran Can Now Make Glowing Mickey Mouse Watches“

Despite all the sloppy and inaccurate headlines

about Iran “going nuclear,” the fact is that all President Mahmoud

Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday was that it had enriched uranium to a

measely 3.5 percent, using a bank of 180 centrifuges hooked up so that

they “cascade.”

The ability to slightly enrich uranium is not

the same as the ability to build a bomb. For the latter, you need at

least 80% enrichment, which in turn would require about 16,000 small

centrifuges hooked up to cascade. Iran does not have 16,000

centrifuges. It seems to have 180. Iran is a good ten years away from

having a bomb, and since its leaders, including Supreme Jurisprudent

Ali Khamenei, say they do not want an atomic bomb because it is

Islamically immoral, you have to wonder if they will ever have a bomb.

Gosh, I wish the religious leaders listened to by many in this country declared the atomic bomb immoral.