Fox News reports:
The top U.S. military official said Sunday he believes Iran has enough fissile material to build a nuclear weapon, but Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Islamic Republic is a long way from having a bomb.
Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency revised its assessment of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, saying it was wrong in earlier reports about Iran’s ability to enrich enough uranium to make a nuclear weapon.
Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, “We think they do, quite frankly,” when asked Sunday about Iran’s capacity.
But rest easy, Iran probably hasn’t actually assembled a bomb yet:
But Gates said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the Iranians are not close to getting a weapon at this time.
“They’re not close to a stockpile, they’re not close to a weapon at this point and so there is some time,” he said when asked whether Tehran could be deterred from pursuing its weapons effort.
Have you noticed that the comforting assessments they give us keep getting less comforting? We’ve gone from “Iran has halted its program and (with moderate confidence) they haven’t restarted it” to “years away from material for a bomb” to “months away from material for a bomb” to “haven’t actually assembled a bomb”. Soon the comforting assessment will be “Iran hasn’t nuked anyone yet.”
POSTSCRIPT: This assessment seems to have been spot on.
Internet Scofflaw 