December 01, 2004

Today's WSJ op ed page has the whole, ugly story:
Tehran's Triumph
Europe and the U.N. bless Iran's march toward a nuclear weapon.

So the International Atomic Energy Agency adopts a resolution Monday holding Iran to a "non-legally binding," "voluntary" and "confidence-building" commitment to suspend its uranium enrichment program. Tehran immediately declares it will abide by the agreement for no more than a few months. And our European friends tell us it's a triumph of their tough-minded but subtly adaptive brand of diplomacy...Are they putting us on?
[...]
...The aggregate value of French exports to Iran amounts to $2.4 billion, not a huge sum but double what it was five years ago. Russia is building Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant. As for China, it gets 13.6% of its oil from Iran; the Chinese state-owned oil giant Sinopec was recently invited by Tehran to develop the huge Yadavaran gas field.
[In fact, the latest precipitous rise in the price of oil was attributed in large part to the Chinese, who were hoarding.--Jen]

These countries are not going to line up behind sanctions under any circumstances, no matter how conclusive the evidence of Iranian malfeasance. They worry more about losing contracts than they do about an Iranian Bomb. The sooner the Administration admits this, the sooner it can escape the IAEA trap and begin to assess its options realistically.
[...]...it would help if the Administration finally made up its own mind about how--or indeed whether--it seriously intends to stop the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism from becoming its 10th nuclear power.

If this isn't a sticky wicket, I don't what is...
I don't know what President Bush needs to do.
Of course, I'm happy to say that he's surprised me pleasantly before with his new solutions to old problems, particularly that of the Paleostinians and the "road map."
Iran has become the new "Palestine" now that the Quartet's road map, the Israeli security fence and Arafat's death have taken that hotspot off the boil.
I'm not sure what our options are with Iran;
not only will the Usual Suspect countries oppose us on the U.N. Security Council, but the Left in this country will join them.
Remember the hell they've given the President because we didn't find many WMDs in Iraq, as if he and not Saddam were to blame?
The volume on that crap will be pumped up for Iran, as I predicted when the Dimocrats first started their campaign months ago.
And there exist too many Americans who look to the Israelis to take care of the Iranian bomb problem the way they did with Saddam's Osirak reactor in 1981, but I think there are too many sites in Iran that are too extensive for the poor IAF to handle by themselves or even to find (supposedly the best Western intell doesn't know for sure where the Iranian bomb sites are).
I'm thinking that a M.A.D. pact may be in the offing--President Bush tells the Iranian MOO-lahs that if a nuke goes off in a U.S., EU or Israeli city that we'll assume it's Iran's and bomb one of their cities back.
I dunno, but what I do know is that these "agreements" that the mullahs are making with the EU Three are meaningless, based on lies and nothing but opportunities to stall us, thus giving them more time to make the actual nuclear bombs and missiles.
Iran has been holding us hostage to their fanaticism since 1979 and I, for one, can't wait to see the tyranny of these Islamic clerics end, however we help bring that about.
I'm tired of worrying about whether their hate will result in the deaths of more Americans and I know that most of the Iranian people suffering under the mullahs' rule are yearning to live free of their tyranny and threats also.
This member of the Axis of Evil is destined for regime change any way you want to look at it.