Some time ago I concluded that there was only going to be one way to stop the threat of nuclear weapons in Iranian hands: direct military action. Diplomacy has been a complete failure; Iran is 'playing' the West with the greatest of ease.
Charles Krauthammer agrees with this, and has written an interesting piece about the calculus. His conclusion: yes, military action will be costly, both in blood and in treasure — but it must be done. His conclusion:
... These are the costs. There is no denying them. However, equally undeniable is the cost of doing nothing.
In the region, Persian Iran will immediately become the hegemonic power in the Arab Middle East. Today it is deterred from overt aggression against its neighbors by the threat of conventional retaliation. Against a nuclear Iran, such deterrence becomes far less credible. As its weak, nonnuclear Persian Gulf neighbors accommodate to it, jihadist Iran will gain control of the most strategic region on the globe.
Then there is the larger danger of permitting nuclear weapons to be acquired by religious fanatics seized with an eschatological belief in the imminent apocalypse and in their own divine duty to hasten the End of Days. The mullahs are infinitely more likely to use these weapons than anyone in the history of the nuclear age. Every city in the civilized world will live under the specter of instant annihilation delivered either by missile or by terrorist. This from a country that has an official Death to America Day and has declared since Ayatollah Khomeini’s ascension that Israel must be wiped off the map.
Against millenarian fanaticism glorying in a cult of death, deterrence is a mere wish. Is the West prepared to wager its cities with their millions of inhabitants on that feeble gamble?
These are the questions. These are the calculations. The decision is no more than a year away.
Yup, he’s got it.
I just hope we can muster the courage (are you listening, Mr. Bush?) to take action — unilaterally if necessary — before the mad mullahs demonstrate their new power by vaporizing London, Munich, Paris, or New York…
In the old blog, Anonymous said:
ReplyDeleteYup, I agree he 'has' it. And if we don’t act soon, we will have 'it' right here. He says a year and I look for 'it' every time I drive to the store. Sad this U S of A is today and sadder is the fact so many out there do not get 'it'.