Joshua Pollack, an occasional UK government consultant

Arms Control Wonk: Joshua Pollack, an occasional UK government consultant, laments that the arms

control community — “nuke nerds” — are not playing a big enough role in discussions over what to do

about Iran’s nuclear program, often only speaking amongst themselves in acronym-heavy jargon. So he

offers, in plain English, a little parsing about the different views of Iran’s nuclear goals: What,

for instance, does “going nuclear” even mean? “If Iran is going to achieve breakout capability at a

hidden facility somewhere — call it Son of Qom — then bombing Natanz won’t address that problem,”

write Pollack. “The name of the game today isn’t bombing, it’s intelligence.” (Hat Tip to Laicie

Olson)

Sheepskin Cuff UGG Boot Post: On the anniversary of the 1953 coup d’etat that unseated the

democratically elected and secular Iranian prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh (and re-installed the

dictatorial Shah), Council on Foreign Relations fellow Ray Takeyh examines the events and offers an

unusual account that places the blame for the failure of democracy fifty-seven years ago squarely on

the same societal forces responsible for last summer’s squashing of democratic expression: Iran’s

clerics.