March 2, 2010: Last month, Iran moved its enriched uranium from underground facilities, to an aboveground building. This made the enriched uranium, which could eventually (once enriched sufficiently) be used in a nuclear weapon, an easy target for an air strike. It's as if the Iranian leadership was inviting Israel (which Iran often and loudly vows to destroy) to come in and attack. Very curious behavior, but understandable. That's because the government of Iran sees an attack on that enriched uranium as one of the few things that can save the government from being overthrown.

The clerical dictatorship in Iran is getting nervous. While there are elections in Iran, the senior clerics can stop any reform candidates from running, or veto laws passed by parliament. This arrangement allows Iranians to at least express their true feelings for the government. Thus, for over a decade, the few reform candidates that got to run, received overwhelming majorities. Opinion surveys indicate that the current government is very unpopular. And despite a large force of secret police, and pro-government street thugs, there are more and more public demonstrations against the government. But those same opinion surveys indicate that one thing, perhaps the only thing, that would rally the people behind their dictatorship would be an Israeli or American air strike on Iran. Bombing the newly enriched nuclear material in an above ground storage area would work best, because the radioactive material would be spread over a large area, enabling the government to blame the attackers of perpetuating a nuclear attack on Iran.

So the message from the Iranian government is; bomb us, please. For a month, at least, while some of  the nuclear material was transferred to a research reactor in Tehran. Then the enriched uranium went back to the underground facility.