Taking on Iran — VOICES for REASON

How about this as a step toward dealing with the threat from Iran? Invite the ambassadors of Iran to feast on hotdogs and join in the festivities at July 4th receptions held in U.S. embassies around the world (America and Iran currently have no formal diplomatic ties).

If this were the opening skit on Saturday Night Live, it might be funny as an absurdist satire. But this is something that Obama’s State Department has come up with, and it is meant in earnest. This fits perfectly with the rest of Obama’s policy of appeasing Iran (a policy the Bush administration began).

That policy has prompted some to wonder whether Israel – knowing that U.S. appeasement will only increase the threat of a nuclear Iran – might use military force to eliminate that threat. The possibility is suggested by the 1981 Israeli bombing raid on Saddam Hussein’s Osirak nuclear facility, which effectively put an end to that threat. And there’s reason to believe Israel recently flattened a nascent nuclear plant in Syria. So if push came to shove, might Israel do the same to Iran?

I have some ideas about what Israel might do (which I intend to write about), but just pause to consider where we find ourselves. For decades Iran has conducted a war against us, and instead of ending that burgeoning threat and protecting our lives, the job may be shunted to an ally. That is a cowardly abdication.

But the situation is actually worse than that. The columnist Caroline Glick observes in a recent article:

[CIA Director Leon] Panetta was reportedly dispatched [to Israel] to read the government the riot act. Israel, he reportedly told his interlocutors, must not attack Iran without first receiving permission from Washington. Moreover, Israel should keep its mouth shut about attacking Iran….

It seems Washington has resigned itself to letting Iran continue being a threat, and soon probably a nuclear-armed one at that. “Senior administration officials acknowledge as much in off-record briefings,” writes Glick. “It is true, they say, that Iran may exploit its future talks with the US to run down the clock before they test a nuclear weapon. But, they add, if that happens, the US will simply have to live with a nuclear-armed mullocracy.”

This is an abysmal, self-destructive policy. What can and should we do about Iran? I’ve touched on that here and here, and I’ll be revisiting the issue in future posts.