It’s only a matter of time before I hear from my usual winger correspondents about this:

Iran has now produced roughly enough nuclear material to make, with added purification, a single atom bomb, according to nuclear experts analyzing the latest report from global atomic inspectors.

The figures detailing Iran’s progress were contained in a routine update on Wednesday from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been conducting inspections of the country’s main nuclear plant at Natanz. The report concluded that as of early this month, Iran had made 630 kilograms, or about 1,390 pounds, of low-enriched uranium.

Several experts said that was enough for a bomb, but they cautioned that the milestone was mostly symbolic, because Iran would have to take additional steps. Not only would it have to breach its international agreements and kick out the inspectors, but it would also have to further purify the fuel and put it into a warhead design — a technical advance that Western experts are unsure Iran has yet achieved.

Emphasis added on the last part - because if you too hear about this from a right-winger today, that part will almost certainly be omitted.

This is, of course, going to be all Obama’s fault.

But it’s also worth asking - because the right-wingers never will - what does this mean? Indeed, even if Iran were to get a full-fledged nuke - what does that mean?

Does it mean that Iran will immediately launch said nuke at Israel? The wingers would very much like you to think this - even though such an act, by Tehran, guarantees that the entirety of Iran be turned into a smoking, radioactive crater, because we know Israel itself has 60 to 200 nukes, and would most certainly retaliate in force. Which Iran knows.

Or, does an Iranian bomb simply mean that we - the United States - and also Israel, cannot attack Iran with impunity? Does it now mean they have retaliatory capability that makes our use of military force less of a viable option?

Yes, it absolutely means that - which is what the wingers are actually concerned about, though they’ll never admit this.

There is admittedly always the chance that Tehran is as crazy as the neocons think. But great powers almost never act in suicidal fashion. Regardless of whether Iran gets one bomb, Israel - with its arsenal, with our backing - retains the upper hand, by a mile. And it may ultimately make war in the Mideast less likely, not more.