That’s right folks!  A Cage match to the  — er, death? — over the issue of Iran’s nuclear program.  Get your popcorn, peanuts and beer ready, it promises to be non-stop action thrill and chills (at least from the Mustache).  Just continue reading below the fold for all the exciting details . . .

First, Mohamed ElBaradei of the International Atomic Energy Association, the UN watchdog organization that monitors compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty:

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency today said he was optimistic that the crisis over Iran’s nuclear programme could be resolved without the intervention of the UN security council.

Speaking as the 35-nation IAEA board prepared to meet, Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters he was hopeful that an agreement could be reached with Iran “in the next week”.

And then there’s the somewhat different take of  America’s Ambassador to the United Nations, the pinup boy for certain female right wing bloggers, and unapologetic neoconservative, John Bolton:

The US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, has told British MPs that military action could bring Iran’s nuclear programme to a halt if all diplomatic efforts fail. The warning came ahead of a meeting today of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which will forward a report on Iran’s nuclear activities to the UN security council. […]

According to Eric Illsley, a Labour committee member, the envoy told the MPs: “They must know everything is on the table and they must understand what that means. We can hit different points along the line. You only have to take out one part of their nuclear operation to take the whole thing down.”

Sounds like Bolton is salivating at the chance to let the misiles fly and war planes zoom at Iran.  Indeed, he repeated his threats yesterday at the annual  American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AICPAC) convention:

“The longer we wait to confront the threat Iran poses, the harder and more intractable it will become to solve … we must be prepared to rely on comprehensive solutions and use all the tools at our disposal to stop the threat that the Iranian regime poses.”

Comprehensive solutions?  Sounds all too eerily like a certain “Final Solution” another warmongering leader once initiated.  Does Bolton seriously think that a military attack on Iran will provide a final solution to Iran’s ambitions, or is he actually hoping for a wider war to break out? And what does the phrase “all the tools at our disposal” really imply?  All the tools would seemingly include the use of nuclear weapons against Iran, wouldn’t it?

Let’s see if the interview he gave the ever fawning wingnut conservative blogger groupie, Atlas Shrugged, adds anything to our understanding, shall we:

JB [Bolton]: Oh its do-able, under the right circumstances. I’m not so naive that I would be doing it if I didn’t think there was a chance which makes it in some senses more frustrating you can see sometimes how close you can get and yet you can’t finish a particular thing. Like Iran, I’ve been working on this for three and a half years

Atlas: And you’ll be working on it for three and half more

JOB: I hope not,  I hope not because now that it’s in the Security Council, now is the time to say this is their chance that either they give up their pursuit of nuclear weapons or we go to what the President said, we do something else.

Something else.  Not to unduely speculate here, but I thing we all know what the Bush administration considers “something else” to mean.

Just to be fair, let’s allow Dr. ElBaradei to get in a few word in this artificial tete-a-tete I’ve created between him and Ambassadoe Bolton:

Mr ElBaradei did not elaborate on the reasons for his optimism that the crisis could be resolved.

However, diplomats told the Associated Press that Iran’s recent talks with Russia and the EU trio of negotiators, France, Britain and Germany, had touched on the possibility of allowing Tehran to run a scaled-down uranium enrichment programme.

Gee, somehow that isn’t terribly reassuring.  I can’t see the Bush adminsitration accepting even a scaled back enrichment program for Iran.  Bush needs a new war to stir support for the GOP’s Congressional candidates this Fall, since nothing else is likely to provide a credible issue than can run on.  And the Pentagon, (i.e., Rumsfeld and his coterie of compliant Generals) is always willing to push for a simple military resolution to complex problems:

The Pentagon position was described, by the committee chairman, Mike Gapes, as throwing a demand for a militarily enforced embargo into the security council “like a hand grenade – and see what happens”.

Charming metaphor. Grenade tossing, that is.  Sorry folks, but at least in the first round it looks like it’s all Bolton.  ElBaradei is going to have to step up his game if he expects to stop the train wreck that is US diplomacy under the direction of the Mustache.  Stay tuned for the next round as this match heads to the United Nations in New York, for what I’m sure Mr. Bolton is hoping will be an explosive finish.

The rest of us?  We’re just hoping we all make it out alive from what looks to be another Middle East fiasco in the making for Our Bush.