Mitt Romney Gives Ideas to Iran

It's like a Romney feeding frenzy out there.  Jon Stewart will be busy tonight!

While the mainstream media is focussing on the Palestinian/Israeli dual state part of Mr. Romneys's comments on Middle East affairs, I was compelled by his logic about Iran and its potential acquisition of nuclear weapons.  Here's more from Mr. Romney regarding his views on Iran and their nuclear program thanks to Mother Jones:

"If I were Iran, if I were Iran—a crazed fanatic, I'd say let's get a little fissile material to Hezbollah, have them carry it to Chicago or some other place, and then if anything goes wrong, or America starts acting up, we'll just say, "Guess what? Unless you stand down, why, we're going to let off a dirty bomb." I mean this is where we have—where America could be held up and blackmailed by Iran, by the mullahs, by crazy people. So we really don't have any option but to keep Iran from having a nuclear weapon."

Here's what the Council on Foreign Relations has to say about dirty bombs.

1.) Is a dirty bomb a nuclear weapon?

No.  Nuclear weapons involve a complex nuclear-fission reaction and are thousands of times more devastating. (i.e. they don't need Mr. Romney's fissile material)

2.) Which radioactive materials could be used to make a dirty bomb?

Many types of radioactive materials with military, industrial, or medical applications could be used in a dirty bomb. Weapons-grade plutonium or freshly spent nuclear fuel would be the most deadly, but these are also the most difficult to obtain and handle. Medical supplies such as radium or certain cesium isotopes used in cancer treatments could also be used. As little as a measuring cup’s worth of radioactive material would be needed, though small amounts probably would not cause severe harm, especially if scattered over a wide area.

Basically, unless there are no X-ray machines or cancer radiation treatment centers in Iran, there is no relationship between Iranian possession of nuclear weapons and their ability to create dirty bombs.

But hey, thanks for giving them a plan and a target, Mr. Romney!  It's the least that you could do.