[Tolik]

    Victor Davis Hanson Ping ! 

       Let me know if you want in or out.

Links: FR Index of his articles:  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=victordavishanson 
His website: http://victorhanson.com/     NRO archive: http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson-archive.asp

[GSlob]

Well, the Israelis are going to sanction them anyway.

[AmericaUnite]

and prepare for the worst.

Or pray for peace and guidance then prepare for the worst.

[Billthedrill]

They worry we will soon stage another preemptive attack - if for no other reason than to wag the dog and shore up the president's approval ratings.

I don't doubt VDH here, but it is simply amazing to me how some liberals insist after all this time that Bush is playing to the poll numbers. Two points here - he isn't Clinton and he isn't running for re-election.

I may be wrong about this but it seems to me that both Russia and China have run the numbers on this and decided that an Iran with nuclear weapons is preferable to U.S. hegemony in the Middle East. Both of these nations have nukes of their own sufficient to glassify Iran should it come to that. An Israel destroyed is no skin off their collective nose. And so the question becomes whose long-term strategic interests are served and whether a general nuclear war in the Middle East is considered a risk sufficient to offset the gains those countries anticipate with the U.S. confounded and the Middle East destabilized.

These are very fine calculations in the Game Of Kings and are more often wrong than right. Given that Iran is likely to possess such weapons and retain its current government, the next question that arises is to whose benefit a destabilized Europe becomes. Were I the Europeans I should be very concerned about that.