Will Iran Develop an Atomic Weapon By 2012?

Iran and its nuclear efforts have been repeatedly in the news, as well as US threats that Iran will be punished if it does not comply with UN Security Council resolutions. This state of affairs has been going on for at least a couple of years. However, during this period of time, Iran shamelessly has continued its nuclear program. The United States continues tied up in Iraq, and probably will be unable to attack Iran given the American public growing distaste with the war in Iraq. In this paper I will analyze the present situation in Iran, and raise the hypothesis that there is little that the United States can do to avoid Iran from developing one or two viable nuclear weapons by as early as 2012.