He’s got the “speak softly” part pretty well covered. Looks like now it’s time for The One to start carrying the big stick. And I do mean big: It’s the largest non-nuclear explosive on earth.

First, some background: Back in October 2007, ABC News reported that the Pentagon had asked Congress for $88 million in the emergency Iraq/Afghanistan war funding request to develop a gargantuan bunker-busting bomb called the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP). It’s a 30,000-pound bomb designed to hit targets buried 200 feet below ground. Back then, the Pentagon cited an “urgent operational need” for the new weapon.

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 comptroller said the Pentagon planned to spend $19.1 million to procure four of the bombs, $28.3 million to accelerate the bomb’s “development and testing”, and $21 million to accelerate the integration of the bomb onto B-2 stealth bombers.

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).

Iran’s enrichment site at Qom is, of course, located inside a mountain. Two thoughts. One: This is a relatively cheap form of saber-rattling. $70 million is nothing when it comes to defense outlays; probably the whole point of speeding up production is simply to be able to leak the story to an outlet like ABC so that Iran will see it. Two: They could be rushing this out not because we intend to use it ourselves (the part about outfitting it for the B-2 notwithstanding) but so that we can hand it off to Israel. Do they have anything big enough to carry it, though? I’m guessing yes, as rumors that we might sell them the MOP have surfaced before.

Exit question: Would a man with this on his wall really bomb Iran? I ask you.