Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

See, that's funny because... well, it's just silly. Obviously, a civilian nuclear program isn't a weapons program. And anyone who thinks it's just a hop and skip away from one obviously doesn't know the first thing about nuclear weapons. The fact that you just take the very low road and twist what I said regarding a civilian program is pretty much evidence that you're just arguing at the level of a third grader and you're about a serious as one.

Prizes are given away at the door.

Well, regardless, the simple fact is that they are a sovereign nation and the hubris involved in paternalistically deciding what they can and cannot do is rather bizarre.

Hal if you had said up front that you were happy with Iran having a nuclear weapon it would have saved both of us a lot of time.

So, while interesting from an academic point of view, really means jack in a realistic, practical point of view.

What they are doing is permitted by treaty. Nothing we can do about it. The justification of it is pretty much immaterial.

Kind of like Israel's 200+ nuclear weapons. Try justifying that little tidbit of information without turning into a pretzel.

LNG projects are currently being cancelled or undergoing significant cost increases because there is not enough engineering talent or materials to build the projects that are currently in the pipeline.

Without LNG conversion Iran's natural gas has zero value on the international market.

However, Iran does not have to be convert their natural gas to LNG for them to use it inside Iran. They could have abundant power supply much faster by using natural gas not nuclear.

In other words it would generate value for them right now. And money right now is much more valuable then money sometime in the future.

Once again showing that the idea that Iran needs nuclear for power does not make any sense.

Especially since they have abundant alternatives to nuclear for power supply.

The fact that Iran has mismanaged their petroleum infrastructure and resources is not a good argument for them getting nuclear power.

It is a strong argument that they do not have the responsibility to handle a nuclear power system.

Especially since they have an abundance of natural gas that has no current value and could be used to generate power much faster and cheaper then nuclear will.

Perhaps, but then so does a nuclear power program. And I think that if energy usage ramps up in the rest of the world close to anything approaching what the US consumes per capita, then the expense will be perfectly justified and I'm sure we'll bend over backwards to get these projects finished ahead of schedule. And if we won't or can't, it's not like there aren't 6 billion other people on the planet with lower environmental standards and a streamlined dictatorship driven process which will.

The idea of energy starved nations trying to steal energy that can't be transported makes zero sense.

You yourself have admitted it's possible. Heck, we're building LNG terminals here in the US. I'm pretty darn sure they're scheduled elsewhere on the planet. There's a lot of LNG pipelines all over the place and overland routes from Iran to places which will be starving for LNG are clearly available.

You've only pointed out that it's expensive and a bit long term for the time being. That's hardly proving it can't be transported.

It's just a matter of money, some time and how badly one wants it.

Iran has probably the second or third largest reserves of natural gas in the world. Most of it they can't do anything with because natural gas can't be transported to most markets without being converted to LNG.

And Hal responded with.

Yes, because we all know that Iran will simply be able to prevent every other major power on the planet that's starved for energy from simply taking it from them. I mean, they're so strong and will clearly be able to prevent the rest of us from sucking them dry.

LNG projects are very expensive, major projects that have long lead times. There is a shortage of construction capacity needed to build these projects.

Once again, the biggest part of Iranian natural gas has no value internationally because it can't be transported out of Iran.

The idea of energy starved nations trying to steal energy that can't be transported makes zero sense.

The Iranians have plenty of energy they don't need nuclear for power. In fact the spending on nuclear is more then likely taking funding away from power projects that would provide more electricity much faster then nuclear will.

I remember my first beer, too.

In any event, you do know that the current funding for the Iraq war is at logger heads because the democratic version of the bill wants to set a timetable to get the troops home, and Bush is threatening to veto it,right? Seems to me that the democrats are doing *precisely* what you claim that they're not.

Must say that OTB has gotten more amusing since the Freeper-esque crowd started hanging around the comments. Now if we can just get y'all into an act with Mannning and others we could really make some money with this on the road.

Republican senators and the republican president? IS THAT THE BEST YOU GOT?!?

If that is true, why don't we see more resolutions to stop the war? Why don't we see more votes to bring the troops home? How is it we never see any proposals to stop funding for the troops except enough to bring them home? Even if they lose the votes, it is what America wants, isn't it?????

The dems control the purse strings, but it is very obvious why they haven't acted: many believe in and voted for the Iraq war. Despite your rhetoric. And while you can certainly believe what you want to believe, the fact is that most dems-your party-are playing politics when it comes to American lives and war. Despicable.

Yes, that has been made quite clear.

I must not be paying enough attention to the news. From the tone and huge New York Times headline in today's Inquirer (and, no doubt, in many other newspapers), you'd almost think that Bush went to war against Iran based......

I am not a monkeyworshiper I am a human being.

oh ya I forgot that one gimp got me with the liberals giving liberals liberals thing but it was dumb luck!

I...ah, shit, nevermind.

This is what I love about these comment threads: the insight into the level of sophistication in the arguments of the right. In this case, you've responded in classic third grade playground style in which your response doesn't even make sense in the world where you only need a small brain to play.

Dude why, I'm smarter then you will ever be.
and I have never needed to go past a 3rd grade intellect to outsmart, out argue, our out stupid any of you liberals even if your to liberal to realize it.

oh ya I forgot that one gimp got me with the liberals giving liberals liberals thing but it was dumb luck!

I suppose the following is irrelevent to their bullet points.

"We judge with high confidence that the halt lasted at least several years. (Because of
intelligence gaps discussed elsewhere in this Estimate, however, DOE and the NIC
assess with only moderate confidence that the halt to those activities represents a halt
to Iran's entire nuclear weapons program.)"

The Great Game is afoot. Instead of the Brits playing it with the Russians the Intelligence community is playing it with the lawfull government of the USA.