Mixed-Up On Iran

IBD Editorials ^ | July 8, 2009

[Kaslin]

Mideast: As Iran continues to work on a nuclear weapon that will forever shift the world's balance of power, the U.S. position gets muddier by the day. What, exactly, is our policy?

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Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says the "clock has continued to tick" on Iran, which so far has ignored the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.S., NATO and the European Union to proceed with its prohibited nuclear program. But what's it ticking down to?

The U.S. has officially decided to give Iran until the end of this year to halt its nuclear program and show its good faith as a member of the global community.

All well and good. Let diplomacy work. But what about when time expires, and Iran's still building a nuke? What then? The signals the White House is sending are mixed, to put it mildly.

Last Sunday, Vice President Joe Biden seemed to suggest the U.S. has given Israel a green light to attack Iran. As he said on ABC's "This Week": "We cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do when they make a determination, if they make a determination, that they're existentially threatened."

Within hours, the State Department corrected Biden, saying there's "no green light" for an Israeli attack. This, it emphasized, is a matter for Mideast governments to work on, and the U.S. would seek "even stricter" sanctions on Iran if talks fail.

[Kaslin]

Ping

[HiTech RedNeck]

The only sanction that Iran will understand is a few pounds of plutonium and tritium in a case bearing a star of David on the side.

[familyop]

If we hit Iran, freight fuel and other foreign product prices will go up. So our politicians’ favorite constituents would rather allow Iran to build nuclear forces. That’s where the fault lies. Remember it.

[BusterBear]

You can tell from Obama’s statements (e.g., give diplomacy until the end of the year and then we will consider what to do) that he just intends to run out the clock until Iran gets a nuclear bomb. (Part of his policy to bring the US down to size and stick it to the Jews.)