I'm very skeptical about the use of nuclear weapons - and I tend to see it as another of those "just fucking watch it" poses that the US has been adopting of late. The Iranians seem more than happy to talk - but they've drawn their red lines now, and it will take substantive concessions to get them to suspend enrichment again.

The problem is that there can be no meaningful negotiations without the US taking part - and the Bush administration is still trying to pretend that it can avoid direct bilateral talks with Iran, so there is a stalemate. I suspect that there is a pretty serious internal struggle going on at present between those who recognise that direct negotiations are the only option and those who would rather hold out in the hopes that circumstances will become more propitious for military action in the future. At any rate, the hawks are shouting very loudly, which suggests that they're worried about the Bush administration being dragged into talks with Iran and the horrendous consequences of doing so.

Furthermore, the administration is rapidly destabilizing under the weight of Iraq, plummeting domestic support, domestic spying revelations, Fitzgerald et al - it will only take an "event" or two for it to collapse in rather ugly fashion.

If the Bush administration were to go down the nuclear strike route then the consequences would be ugly - an anwful lot of innocent Americans abroad would get caught up in a very nasty backlash, and US corporations can forget about their foreign investment portfolios for a few decades to come.