Bush's plans for Iran have earned him some blow back from the Chief UN Nuclear Inspector.

Invoking the war in Iraq, the chief U.N. nuclear inspector criticized talk of attacking Iran as “hype” on Monday, saying the use of force should only be considered as a last resort and only if authorized by the U.N. Security Council.

“I would not talk about any use of force,” said Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in an indirect response to French warnings that the world had to be prepared for the possibility of war in the event that Iran obtains atomic weapons.

Saying only the U.N. Security Council could authorize the use of force, ElBaradei urged the world to remember Iraq before considering any similar action against Iran.

“There are rules on how to use force, and I would hope that everybody would have gotten the lesson after the Iraq situation, where 70,000 innocent civilians have lost their lives on the suspicion that a country has nuclear weapons,” he told reporters.

He was alluding to a key U.S. argument for invading Iraq in 2003 without Security Council approval_ that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear arms. Four years later, no such arsenals have been found.

Unlike the Iraq invasion, Bush is going to find no political cover for an attack on Iran. Too many world leaders and Pentagon officials have gone on record saying that attacking Iran is a mistake and will lead to devastating circumstances.

If Bush does this he will earn the acrimony of every other nation in the world , with the possible exception of Israel, and will infuriate the people of his own country.

The world is war weary and will not stand still for another invasion.

But if Bush wants to show us his cajones he can debate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the UN and maybe earn just a little respect back. Just a little.