Now that the cold war has been rekindled, it is not likely that Russia will cooperate with the US to force Iran to forsake nuclear weapons in an unmistakably verifiable manner.The result will be that Iran’s nuclear infrastructure will remain functional and intact. This is totally unacceptable to Israel and Saudi Arabia. If this were a Presidential year, the candidates would not be allowed Rand Paul’s vague, non committed position. The major question to the candidates and the American people would be if the Saudis and Israelis do attack Iran, what will be the position and role of the United States? Polls will probably show that those that advocate “caution’ or “non involvement” will be most popular and likely to be elected.
I don’t believe Israel, even with help from the Saudis has the capability of stopping Iran’s nuke program. It’s too well hidden, dispersed and buried to stop it. Really the only solution is regime change. It’s also the one thing the mullahs fear. The only time they ever suspended the program in 30 years was a brief period following the invasion of Iraq. Once they realized that we were too bogged down in the aftermath of removing Saddam to attack them they started it back up.
I don’t believe anyone in either party is seriously considering regime change in Iran, but if they are, then Paul is right, it’s best not to talk about it. But he’s wrong in saying we would need a congressional debate to do so. In that he is contradicting himself, as such a debate would clearly spell out our intentions.