Reply #7: The significance of your concern and this question is a timeline

[Tom Rinaldo]

If no one or nothing budges it seems we are headed into a new armed conflict in the Middle East, most likely sooner rather than later. If the U.S. government determins, either through valid or flawed intelligence, that Iran's nuclear program is approaching the point where they will have solved the key technical problems that must be overcome in order to build nuclear weapons, current U.S. policy indicates that we will attack Iran rather than let them cross that that technical threshold. In other words the U.S. is unlikely to wait until after Iran tests a nuclear device for final confirmation of our fears.

As long as the U.S. believes Iran is trying to acquire nuclear weapons dispite what their government says to the contrary, and if the U.S. policy I outlined above doesn't change, the point where armed conflict with Iran will be initiated is approaching faster than many people realize, by some people's estimates possibly within the next 9 to 12 months. Others say that decision can safely be put off longer, possibly far longer than that, but as it stands now Bush is still "the decider" for when the risk becomes too great to put off attacking Iran.

So your last resort may arrive as soon as early next year, unless our government backs off on insisting that Iran can not be allowed to acquire nukes, or unless Iran agrees to take steps that are sufficient to assure the American government that they will not develope nukes.