Friday, July 14, 2006

WHAT IRAN IS COUNTING ON

Here is a good summary of some of the issues regarding Israel, Iran and the escalating situation in the middle east. I touched on some of these points in earlier posts (here and here). The author, Robert Tracinski, suggests that Iran has forcibly brought the war to the U.S. by aggressively using its proxies (Hamas and Hizbollah) to draw the US out. Why? Because Bush has been content to let the diplomatic process play itself out; and if allowed to do so, then it would place Bush in a stronger position for military action.

It is no coincidence--as others have pointed out--that Iran has taken action on the eve of its nuclear deadline. The war it has initiated is designed to 1)deflect attention away from its nuclear program (not quite ready yet, are we?); and to force the U.S.'s hand in the region--i.e., forcing us to act before they think we were quite ready to act.

In all this, Iran is counting on the appeasement of both the UN and the EU ;and they haven't been disappointed, have they?

But in all this maneuvering, Iran betrays its fundamental ignorance of the psychology of both Israel and the U.S.

Iran has revealed its hand, challenging the US and its allies and openly demonstrating its desire to dominate the Middle East through force and terror. While we have been trying to delay the war with Iran, it has brought the war to us, in a manner so obvious that even the mainstream media cannot evade it.

In doing so, they have made their threat to America and its interests more obvious and more urgent--providing a stronger case for war than their nuclear program could provide. There can be no question here about whether Iran really has aggressive designs in the Middle East, whether it really seeks the weapons to attack the US and its allies, and how long it might take for such a threat to materialize. The threat is here and Iran's newest war on the West has already begun.

Iran is risking everything on this new strategy, and the only hope they have of success is the expectation that, as they bring the war closer and closer to America, we won't fight back.

But that means that we have an easy way to blow their strategy to smithereens.

All we have to do is to start fighting back.


Iran has seriously miscalculated if they think that while Bush is president, we won't.

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