Putin Ignores Bush, Signs Nuclear Deal With Iran Today

by Steve

Three days after Bush thought he and his buddy Vladimir Putin saw eye-to-eye on the issue of assisting Iran in its nuclear program, Pooty-Poot signed an agreement to assist Iran in its nuclear program.

Dismissing American concerns about Iran's nuclear ambitions, Russia Sunday cemented its commitment to Iran's atomic-energy program by signing a deal for the supply and return of Russian nuclear fuel for Iran's Bushehr reactor.

The agreement takes Iran a significant step closer to becoming a nuclear-energy power, and builds on an $800 million contract for Russia to finish the plant in Bushehr, in southwestern Iran along the coast of the Persian Gulf.

Washington frequently criticizes Iranian-Russian nuclear cooperation, a point raised again by President Bush during a summit last Thursday with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Spent nuclear fuel can be reprocessed to yield plutonium, which can be used to make nuclear bombs.

In fact, the Russians will be actively involved in the supplying and oversight of this reactor, which interestingly will be ready to go live just before the 2006 midterm elections.

I now wonder how the region will react in the years ahead if and when the United States or Israel take a preemptive strike against the reactor, given that Russian personnel will be onsite.

To be charitable to Bush, I suspect that Putin told Bush he was going to do this when they met on Thursday, which I hope explains the reason why the White House has so far been silent on this agreement today. At least I hope that is the reason. I'd hate the think that the reason why the White House is silent is because Putin just stuck a finger in Bush's eye with this deal.

And you can disregard John McCain's comments today about excluding Russia from the upcoming G-8 meetings. The truth is that we have little influence anymore with Putin, China, or India because we have squandered our moral capital, have shown ourselves to be the ultimate hypocrites and inconsistent with our principles, and have been rendered militarily impotent in Iraq.

But it’s clear that Bush’s personal appeal to his friend Vladimir had a great impact on Pooty-Poot.