In a move surely designed to give Iran's militant mullahs pause for thought, the Obama Administration has released information that America's biggest bunker-busting bomb is ready to use. Last week, Air Force Secretary, Michael Donley, told Defense News that the massive ordnance penetrator, MOP, a 30,000 pound behemoth designed to penetrate the earth to an alleged depth of 200 feet, is ready to be employed against Iranian nuclear weapons production sites. It is almost a certainty that the weapon's announced capabilities are short of actual performance. You don't announce your limitations to your enemies so they can simply dig deeper redoubts for their bomb building program. So actual penetration capabilities remain unknown.

The GBU-57, its official designation, is designed to be launched from and then GPS guided to its designated target by a B-2 Spirit, stealth bomber. Were I an Iranian nuclear scientist or even just a worker bee down in one of those supposedly secret underground facilities, I just might find the thought of becoming an acquired target by one of the world's most advanced strategic bombers carrying a monster weapon like the MOP to be a bit disturbing to my concentration.

Many of Iran's scientists, especially the older, senior ones, were educated in America several decades ago. Do you suppose some of them might remember Tennessee Ernie Ford and his musical lament about working deep in the earth? Perhaps they should contemplate how Old Ern, himself a navigator on B-29 Superfortress bombers in the Pacific during WWII, might update those homespun lyrics for the modern world to something more timely, like this:

You drop fifteen tons an' whaddaya get?

Bunch a bomb-buildin' bad guys, you dang well bet.

St. Peter tell the mullahs their bombs gotta stop,

Or we'll wipe their butts out with our big ol' MOP.

Ernie, you old warhorse and troubadour, I hope that puts a smile on your face wherever you are.