If you're not reading this guy every weekday, you're missing a lot.

"The international community must come together to make it very clear to Iran that we will not tolerate construction of a nuclear weapon," Bush told reporters at the end of a meeting in the White House Cabinet Room. "Iran would be dangerous if it had a nuclear weapon," he said.

Bush said he had brought the matter of nuclear weapons up with other leaders at the G-8 meeting of industrial powers, plus Russia, earlier this month.

"There was near-universal agreement that we all must work together to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon," he said.

The interesting thing here is that politicians say this all the time, but one suspects that this particular fellow means it - and that will unnerve the Unnerved-American community. But why? I thought that nukular proliferation was a bad thing. I remember the 80s; I remember the marches. The posters. The buttons. I believe that giant mocking puppet-heads were deployed to humiliate those who govern nations that possess nukes. So shouldn’t it be a good thing that Iran might have its toybox overturned?

No, no, no, and no again. Bush is obviously suggesting that force might be used to squash Iran’s nuclear threat, and that simply is not the way to go about it. Here’s what you do:

1. Make many speeches about Severe Consequences before various international organizations, preferably in Europe, because the food is incredible and the view out the windows at night is spectacular. The way the lights shine off that river - man, it's something.

2. Let the issue drift off the A-section into the weekly political magazines

3. Use the State Department to pressure Iran into signing some sort of treaty that bans nuclear weapon development in exchange for favorable trade conditions

5. Wait a year, during which you skim a few reviews of “Allah’s Sword: Inside Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program” by Ke Pollack, published 2004. Quell gnawing fear in gut by going on the stump for some campaign appearances - see, people love you! No matter what happens, you’ll be remembered well.

6. Get shaken awake at 3 AM by an aide who says you’re needed in the Situation Room; when you enter you see that one monitor has a picture of a mushroom cloud, and the other has a map of Israel. Crap.

7. Four AM call to the Israeli PM offering sympathy, and threatening to cut off aid if Israel nukes Iran; nine AM press conference that urges restraint, lest the “cycle of violence” begin again. After all, no one knows who was behind the bomb.

8. Demand a Congressional investigation to learn who bungled the intelligence

9. Run for reelection on a platform that includes a call for a new international body to monitor nuclear arms proliferation

Or:

1. Mr. Enrichment Facility, meet Mr. Moab. Mr. Moab, Mr. Enrichment Facility. I’m sure you two have much to discuss, so we’ll just leave you to sort it out.

I’ll take the second option.