Nuclear rivalry, stagecraft rivalry

Seems the Iranians have learned a little something from the Bush administration about the importance of stagecraft and backdrops when Great Leader (of either Iran or the U.S.) gives a speech.

Mr. Ahmadinejad reiterated that Iran's nuclear program was being developed for industrial and power purposes alone, and said his country "does not get its strength from nuclear arsenals."

But he did his best to turn the development to political advantage.

"I declare at this historic moment, with the blessings of God almighty and the efforts of our scientists, that we have mastered the nuclear fuel cycle on a laboratory scale and on Sunday our young scientists have produced enriched uranium required for nuclear plants," Mr. Ahmadinejad said.

"Access to the nuclear fuel cycle is a national demand and our people have repeatedly stressed that they want to have it."

His speech, given before a mural of doves in flight and a motto in English ["Nuclear Energy Is Our Indisputable Right"), was bracketed by recitations from the Koran and followed by chants of "God is Great."

Before he spoke, a small parade of men in traditional costumes danced as a thin silver box said to contain the first enriched uranium was carried to the stage. An announcer said the box would be preserved at a museum.

Lunacy.

Ahmadinejad is the gift that keeps on giving to the Cheney Administration. His insane declarations are the perfect smokescreen for the insane non-declarations coming out of the White House. As we move inexorably towards a nuclear attack -- the first since Nagasaki -- on another country, Ahmadinejad gives the media the opportunity to, basically, ignore this fact. I don't know about you, but when the President of the U.S. calls plans to launch a nuclear airstrike -- and calling it "tactical" doesn't change the nuclear part -- "speculation," I think it deserves a little more attention than the collective yawn from our great newspapers and 24-hour news channels. Because "wild speculation" is the most obvious non-denial denial I've ever heard.

I won't go on about this because if you've been perusing the lefty blogosphere you probably already know that the reclusive and elusive Billmon has written an essay on this very topic that you should read. Of course, if you do, you may come away as dispirited as I did that we are witnessing, as one writer described it recently, a slow moving Cuban Missile Crisis and our major media outlets -- and most of the population of the U.S. -- don't seem to really care.

Maybe the idea of the United States would launch a nuclear first strike – albeit a "surgical" one – is too hard for most Americans, including most American journalists, to process. (I'm talking about normal people here, not the genocide junkies over at Little Green Footballs) It's even harder to square with our national self-image than the invasion of Iraq. We're the global sheriff, after all – Gary Cooper in a big white hat. And while Gary Cooper might shoot an outlaw down in a fair fight at High Noon, he wouldn't sneak into their camp in the middle of the night and incinerate them with nuclear weapons. That's not how the Code of the West is supposed to work.

Even my own hyperactive imagination is having a hard time wrapping itself around the idea. I'm familiar enough with Cold War history to know the United States has at least considered the first use of nuclear weapons before – in Korea and even in Vietnam – and I know it was long-standing U.S. strategic doctrine never to rule out a nuclear response to a Soviet conventional attack on Western Europe. But the current nuclear war gaming strikes me as much more likely to end in the real thing – partly because the neocons appear to have convinced themselves a "tactical" strike doesn't really count, partly because of what Hersh politely refers to as Bush's "messianic vision" (Cheney may have his finger on the bureaucracy, but Shrub is still the one with his finger on the button) but mostly because I think these guys really think they can get away with it. And they might be right.

And remember, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the leaders of the two countries, Brezhnev* and Kennedy were sane, even while Castro and the Pentagon brass were not. Sadly, the opposite situation is in play this time.

* CORRECTION: Brezhnev? Wha? It was Kruschev. And, admittedly, "sane" is a relative term.