Resumen de Nuclear attainment

Merrill Perlman

• An editorial discussed Iran's "determined program to attain nuclear-weapons capacity." Later, it cited pressure on Iran "to halt its aggressive program to attain a nuclear bomb." What Iran is trying to do is "attain" nuclear capacity so it can "obtain" a nuclear bomb. Here, Perlman comments that "attain" and "obtain" both have the sense of "getting" something. But "attain" has embedded in it the sense of a goal that is reached through some effort; "obtain" carries more a sense of "procuring."