The United States appears to be preparing to bomb nuclear facilities within Iran, ABC News reported this morning. Apparently odd appropriations for defense spending have been popping up in Congress.

Now the Pentagon is shifting spending from other programs to fast forward the development and procurement of the Massive Ordnance Penetrator. The Pentagon comptroller sent a request to shift the funds to the House and Senate Appropriations and Armed Services Committees over the summer…

The notification was tucked inside a 93-page “reprogramming” request that included a couple hundred other more mundane items.

Why now? The notification says simply, “The Department has an Urgent Operational Need (UON) for the capability to strike hard and deeply buried targets in high threat environments. The MOP is the weapon of choice to meet the requirements of the UON.” It further states that the request is endorsed by Pacific Command (which has responsibility over North Korea) and Central Command (which has responsibility over Iran).

The request was quietly approved. On Friday, McDonnell Douglas was awarded a $51.9 million contract to provide “Massive Penetrator Ordnance Integration” on B-2 aircraft.

This is not the kind of weapon that would be particularly useful in Iraq or Afghanistan, but it is ideally suited to hit deeply buried nuclear facilities such as Natanz or Qom in Iran.

While the military may be preparing itself for any order to strike that comes down the chain of command, I doubt that order will ever come. Not only has Obama committed his entire policy on Iran to unconditionally appeasing the Mullahs, but his base would flee and his political capital deplete by bombing Iranian territory. While the majority of the American people and even Democrats may favor military action to stop Iran from acquiring a nuke, his hard-left liberal base doesn’t. He needs their support.

Does anyone really see Obama, already showing little-to-no leadership in the current war on terrorism and taking his sweet time on making a decision on troop levels, deciding to start another battle front? Taking the plunge in ordering the US Air Force to unleash its full might on nuclear facilities we may or may not know the locations of? It runs against everything we’ve known about Obama, and everything he’s said publicly, since his first day on the campaign trail.