"[Iran's] progress is far less than expected," said David Albright, a nuclear expert who is president of the Institute for Science and International Security. "Whether it's because of technical problems or self-restraint it's hard to gauge, but I don't think the U.S. can deliver on its promise to get hard sanctions when Iran is barely progressing."

There's still an issue here, a real one. The spread of nuclear weapons is against the interests of the United States and the creation of a viable global non-proliferation framework is very much in our interests. But there's no need for panic and paranoia, sentiments that are being fed in this country by a combination of GOP political needs and the fact that many of the Bush administration's leading lights just are panicky and paranoid in their approach to the world.