‘Iran will never get a nuclear weapon on my watch,” says Joe Biden often and unconvincingly. He said it to Israeli prime ministers Bennett in 2021 and Lapid in 2022. He has even threatened to use military force “as a last resort.” A cynic would suggest that Biden’s attempt to forge another Obama-like “nuclear deal” is designed to ensure that Iran gets a nuclear weapon on the next president’s watch. A pessimist believes it’s too late.
As a pessimist by nature, I’m afraid that the window of opportunity to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb has closed. Iran is already a nuclear power, and decades of dithering, cajoling, and appeasing by past U.S. administrations from Clinton to Biden (especially Obama) have given it the time and political cover to build several nuclear bombs. Even the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) now estimates that Iran is only several weeks away from having “the approximate amount of nuclear material for . . . manufacturing a nuclear explosive device,” which, given the IAEA’s spotty record, probably means that threshold was crossed months if not years ago.
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