A NUCLEAR PEARL HARBOR?

Posted at 10:22 a.m. ET

The UN's man in charge of saving the world has admitted failure.  But, of course, he doesn't want anyone else to save it either.

Mohamed elBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, now concedes that all his efforts to restrain Iran's nuclear program have gone down the drain.  We are moved that he has told us this, now that Iran, according to many informed estimates, is one to two years away from the capacity to build the bomb.  The L.A. Times reports:

The chief of the world's nuclear weapons watchdog organization considers five years of U.S. and international efforts to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions a failure, as Tehran moves ever closer to obtaining the means to develop weapons of mass destruction...

..."We haven't really moved one inch toward addressing the issues," said Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA. "I think so far the policy has been a failure."

So we're back to square one, with a new president who's hot to negotiate, even though all the negotiations have failed.  What's wrong with that picture?

Of course, this UN chap has some advice:

The 66-year-old Egyptian diplomat and 2005 Nobel Peace Prize laureate also urged world leaders to address broader unease about security, poverty and perceived injustice rather than zero in on narrow security concerns, such as nuclear weapons.

Narrow security concerns?  Yeah, right.  We've got to put this destruction of whole cities into perspective. 

And, of course, the required attack on President Bush:

He said U.S. President-elect Barack Obama gave him "lots of hope" after he inserted a proposal to abolish all nuclear weapons in the Democratic Party platform and advocated opening diplomatic dialogue with rivals.

"He is ready to talk to his adversaries, enemies, if you like, including Iran, also [North] Korea," he said, adding that the Bush administration was reluctant to do so. "To continue to pound the table and say, 'I am not going to talk to you,' and act in a sort of a very condescending way -- that exaggerates problems."

Fella, just what has all your talking accomplished?  You just admitted failure.  Yet you want us to pursue the same course.  Get into the real world, and then we can take you seriously.

During the interview, ElBaradei, who is scheduled to retire in about a year, shed his severe public persona, punctuating freewheeling comments about weapons proliferation, world peace and contemporary politics with laughter. He sat surrounded by his collection of African art while wearing a gray pinstriped suit and a bright orange Salvatore Ferragamo tie.

He spoke of possibly living in southern France, where he recently purchased a home.

Sounds reasonable.  He'd probably be safe from Iranian nuclear weapons in southern France.

Oh, and here's some more advice:

One hope of a diplomatic solution, he said, was for the U.S. and Iran to meet to begin talking, not just about nuclear technology but also about grievances that stretch from the 1950s, when the U.S. helped overthrow a democratically elected government, to the present, when Iranian and American surrogates vie for supremacy in several Middle East battlegrounds.

So let me get this right:  After elBaradei fails, and admits it, he really thinks Iran will give up its nuclear program if we talk to them about past grievances.  Yeah, of course they will.

He brushed aside the argument of some U.S. analysts who describe Iran as a messianic state determined to obtain nuclear weapons to launch a war against its archnemesis, Israel.

"When I go to Iran I see . . . that there are all different shades and colors in Iran, from atheist to religious zealots," he said. "So Iran is no different than any other country. I mean, they are connected with the rest of the world."

Just read that last comment again.  Would you trust this man with your children's lives?  He has the mentality of a 12-year-old.  The issue is not Iran's "diversity," but who controls the nuclear program.  The man understands nothing.

ElBaradei contended that the best route to avoiding the spread of nuclear weapons is building international trust.

"The system should not be based on, 'I am powerful militarily,' " he said. "The system should be based on, 'What contribution do I make to world civilization?' "

That's nice.  While we've on the way to your paradise, I'd like to keep the powder dry, if it's okay with you, Mohamed.

It's perfectly obvious that the wrong man has been in charge of nuclear nonproliferation, and the world may pay the price.

This is Pearl Harbor Day.  Remember what happened when attitudes like elBaradei's prevailed before World War II. 

December 7, 2008.