IRAN RESPONDS - AT 8:12 A.M. ET:  Early reports are sketchy, but the government of Iran - the fighting mullahs - has handed over its much-anticipated answer to the West's demands on its nuclear program.  Despite some media attempts to spin the response as the beginning of peace on Earth and good will toward men, it appears that Iran is making demands that will make a deal all but meaningless:

Iran has presented its response on a United Nations-drafted nuclear fuel deal to the head of the International Atomic Energy Organization (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, Iran's state al Alam television reported on Thursday.

Iran will seek major revisions to the proposed deal, including shipping abroad its low-enriched uranium (LEU) in stages rather than all at once, according to another pro-government newspaper.

That pretty much kills it.  Shipping the stuff abroad in stages is just what weapons experts in the West fear.  It means that Iran, as we pointed out yesterday, can stretch things out, replace immediately any uranium that's shipped abroad, and keep its program running pretty much on schedule.

But the appeasement crowd may hail this as a "breakthrough, a first step."  It is actually, if reported correctly, a farce.

COMMENT:  After today, the ball will be in Obama's court.  In foreign affairs, he seems to be losing everywhere, with the left wing of his party opposed to anything that smacks of successful national defense.  The left will pressure him to accept anything Iran offers as a means of delaying any possible confrontation with the mullah regime.  Obama, given his instincts, may be tempted to take the deal as he contemplates a possible troop increase in Afghanistan and an upsurge of violence in Iraq.

And thus we have a brilliant new foreign policy.  Don't you feel safer?

October 29,  2009