Iran Reaches Target for Nuclear Program

Iran continues to taunt the Unites States and over their “atomic energy” program, saying today they reached an important goal in their efforts to enrich uranium:

Iran has reached a key target of 3,000 centrifuges for uranium enrichment President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday, vowing to ignore UN resolutions calling for a halt to Tehran's sensitive nuclear work.

"We have now reached 3,000 machines," a defiant Ahmadinejad told a rally in the northeastern city of Birjand.

Scientists say that in ideal conditions 3,000 centrifuges can make enough highly enriched uranium in a year's time for an atom bomb.

The one-year projection would be soon enough to allow the Bush administration to launch an attack against Iran, which has been a major worry for many bloggers over the past few months.

The location of Iran’s underground nuclear facility is no secret, and if Iran has its way, the facility in Natanz is slated to house up to 54,000 centrifuges capable of enriching uranium at an industrial scale.

Ahmadinejad’s assertion that the program is “irreversible” seems like a particularly blatant challenge to the United States’ efforts to halt production.

Last month, Congress received a request for $88 million to speed up the production of the MOP, or Massive Ordinance Penetrator, a 30,000-pound bunker buster that was first tested last March. The Air Force is currently capable of deploying the weapon on its B-2 bomber. The bomb is capable of damaging targets up to 200 feet underground – plenty deep to strike the Natanz facility, which is reported to be just 100 feet below the surface. If there is no future plans to attack Iran, why the sudden funding spike?

Attack scenarios have sprung up across the Web, with Iran warning of an 11,000-missle counterattack. Regardless of Iran’s muscle-flexing, most experts agree Iran would be a “walkover” militarily. It’s what comes after the airstrikes that has defense analysts worried.

Iran could send oil prices skyrocketing (even faster than they currently are, if you can believe it), further destabilize Afghanistan and Iraq (if that’s even possible, with Turkey-Kurd crisis), and strike other U.S. interests in the region using hit-and-run tactics.

It looks like diplomacy might be the better option.