Decision ‘08

More On Iran

The Wall Street Journal says Sy Hersh is focusing on the wrong bomb scare:

In the matter of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, these columns aren’t often complimentary. But the Iranian president does have an exquisite sense of timing.

Mr. Ahmadinejad announced yesterday that the Islamic Republic had for the first time enriched uranium to reactor-grade levels. “This is a starting point for more major points of success for the Iranian nation,” says the man who repeatedly calls for Israel to be “wiped off the map.” This announcement puts Iran in formal breach of a U.N. Security Council resolution. It also indicates that Iran has the know-how, if not yet the industrial base, to build an atomic bomb.

Maybe this will now focus minds on the real Iranian bomb scare–the risk that a repressive regime with huge oil and gas reserves, “revolutionary” ideals, regional ambitions and a global terrorist network will be in a position to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons. In recent weeks, however, too much attention has been paid to a different bomb scare: Reports that the Bush Administration has plans for air strikes on Iran’s nuclear-related installations.

An old Carter hand says a war with Iran would bring an end to the American dominance of global affairs:

Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, makes a similar argument about Iran. “I think of war with Iran as the ending of America’s present role in the world,” he told me this week. “Iraq may have been a preview of that, but it’s still redeemable if we get out fast. In a war with Iran, we’ll get dragged down for 20 or 30 years. The world will condemn us. We will lose our position in the world.”

Meanwhile, there are more signs that, as my readers have pointed out, Sy Hersh may have been played as a useful idiot on the tactical nukes story:

“The problem is that our policy has been all carrots and no sticks,” the adviser told a gathering of academics and outside strategists, according to members of the audience. “And the Iranians know it.”

It is partly for that reason, other administration officials say, that President Bush and his aides see some benefits in the increasing public discussion about what the White House may do if diplomacy fails to persuade Iran to halt what they suspect is a nuclear weapons program.

Iran’s announcement on Tuesday that it had succeeded in enriching uranium — a significant step toward building a weapon, which most experts believe is still years away — is bound to heighten the escalation of threats between Washington and Tehran.

Even before the announcement, news accounts in recent days of what airstrikes could look like, appearing in The New Yorker, The Washington Post and elsewhere, served as what one senior official called “a reminder” to the Iranian government and to Europe, Russia and China “of where this could go one day.”

But at the Pentagon and elsewhere in the administration, officials say the prospect of military action remains remote in the short term and highly problematic beyond that.

We’ll keep an eye on this story, no doubt…

3 Responses to “More On Iran”

1 dmac Says:
April 12th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
I can’t remember another time (in the last 35 years) when a country has continually bragged about how far it is along in building a nuclear weapon. Nations like India and Pakistan kept their programs virtually undetected, and only let the secret out after they had conducted tests.

Methinks they doth protest too much here? Let us hope.
2 All Things Beautiful Says:
April 12th, 2006 at 4:06 pm
What Does Iran Really Want

In order for this debate to be genuine, it must be predicated upon a proper understanding of what threat we are facing. We must somehow achieve consensus on the answer to the question of all questions, “What Do The Iranian Leaders Really Want”.
3 Hokie Explorer Says:
April 12th, 2006 at 9:15 pm
I’m still not worried about Iran.