How did we get here?
In this 20-minute video, Jen Rubin talks to Wendy Sherman about how we got to where we are with Iran. Wendy Sherman was the lead negotiator of the original agreement between Obama and Iran. The following is extracted from Wendy Sherman’s remarks.
The original agreement allowed Iran to enrich uranium up to a limit of 3.67% and to keep a very small stockpile of that enriched uranium.
Now Iran has enriched to at least 60%. They need 90% for enough material for a nuclear weapon. They also have an enormous stockpile of enriched uranium.
President Obama is the one who created this massive ordinance penetrator (MOP or bunker buster) that's being talked about to go to the underground site called Fordo. He commissioned, deployed, and tested the MOP because he wanted Iran to know that the United States has a military option in case Iran cheated on the agreement.
In addition, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had an extensive monitoring and verification system. They had people on the ground. They had electronic monitoring. They also had as part of the agreement that if anybody's intelligence found a suspect site, the IAEA had the right to inspect that site even if Iran didn't want them to.
A lot of that has gone away. Raphael Gross, now the head of the IAEA, has said that the IAEA can no longer verify exactly what's going on in Iran.
There are three steps to create a functioning nuclear bomb. (a) Getting enough material, which is either highly enriched uranium or weapons-grade plutonium, (b) To turn it into a bomb by enclosing it in a bomb casing. And (c) to marry it with a delivery system that can deliver that bomb.
Ostensibly, the Supreme Leader has not yet made the decision to go for a
nuclear weapon. Those pieces have not been put together.
Until now, the US has helped Israel build a defensive capability.
What is currently before President Trump is whether to take an offensive role, to use the massive ordinance penetrator, the bunker buster, at Fordo.
That is a huge decision because if President Trump decides to do that, no one can reliably say what all the first, second, and third-order effects will be. We have not prepared for these contingencies.
Let's even suppose that the United States does deploy this weapon, and it does hit Fordo, and it is disabled in some fashion. 5 years from now, 10 years from now, Iran might rebuild its capabilities, and we could be back in the same position we face now.
There is more in the video worth watching.