And how would the war critics have 'done' Iran?

Iran Forum

By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER
Houston Chronicle

Did we invade the wrong country? One of the lessons now being drawn from the 9/11 report is that Iran was the real threat. It had links to al-Qaida, allowed some of the 9/11 hijackers to transit through and is today harboring al-Qaida leaders. The Iraq war critics have a new line of attack: We should have done Iran instead of Iraq.

Well, of course Iran is a threat and a danger. But how exactly would the critics have "done" Iran? Iran is a serious country with a serious army. Compared to Iraq, an invasion of Iran would have been infinitely more costly. Can you imagine these critics, who were shouting "quagmire" and "defeat" when the low-level guerrilla war in Iraq intensified in April, actually supporting war with Iran?

If not war, what then? We know the central foreign policy principle of Bush critics: multilateralism. John Kerry and the Democrats have said it a hundred times: The source of our troubles is Bush's insistence on "going it alone." They promise to "rejoin the community of nations" and "work with our allies."

Well, that happens to be exactly what we have been doing on Iran. And the policy is an abject failure. The Bush administration, having decided that invading one axis-of-evil country was about as much as either the military or the country can bear, has gone multilateral on Iran, precisely what the Democrats advocate. Washington delegated the issue to a committee of three — the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany — that has been meeting with the Iranians to get them to shut down their nuclear program.

The result? They have been led by the nose. Iran is caught red-handed with illegally enriched uranium, and the Tehran Three prevail upon the Bush administration to do nothing while they persuade the mullahs to act nice. Therefore, we do not go to the U.N. Security Council to declare Iran in violation of the Nonproliferation Treaty. We do not impose sanctions. We do not begin squeezing Iran to give up its nuclear program.

Instead, we give Iran more time to swoon before the persuasive powers of "Jack of Tehran" — British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw — until finally, humiliatingly, Iran announces that it will resume enriching uranium and that nothing will prevent it from becoming a member of the "nuclear club."

The result has not been harmless. Time is of the essence, and the runaround that the Tehran Three have gotten from the mullahs has meant that we have lost at least nine months in doing anything to stop the Iranian nuclear program.

The fact is that the war critics have nothing to offer on the single most urgent issue of our time — rogue states in pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. Iran instead of Iraq? The Iraq critics would have done nothing about either country. There would today be two major Islamic countries sitting on an ocean of oil, supporting terrorism and seeking weapons of mass destruction — instead of one.

Two years ago, there were five countries supporting terror and pursuing WMDs — two junior-leaguers, Libya and Syria, and the axis-of-evil varsity: Iraq, Iran and North Korea. The Bush administration has just eliminated two: Iraq, by direct military means, and Libya, by example and intimidation.

Syria is weak and deterred by Israel. North Korea, having gone nuclear, is untouchable. That leaves Iran. What to do? There are only two things that will stop the Iranian nuclear program: revolution from below or an attack on its nuclear facilities.

The country should be ripe for revolution. The regime is detested. But the mullahs are very good at police-state tactics. The long-awaited revolution is not happening.

Which makes the question of pre-emptive attack all the more urgent. Iran will go nuclear during the next presidential term. Some Americans wishfully think that the Israelis will do the dirty work for us, as in 1981 when they destroyed Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor. But for Israel, attacking Iran is a far more difficult proposition. It is farther away. Moreover, detection and antiaircraft technology are far more advanced than 20 years ago.

There may be no deus ex machina. If nothing is done, a fanatical terrorist regime openly dedicated to the destruction of the "Great Satan" will have both nuclear weapons and the terrorists and missiles to deliver them. All that stands between us and that is either revolution or pre-emptive strike. Both of which, by the way, are far more likely to succeed with 146,000 American troops and highly sophisticated aircraft standing by just a few miles away — in Iraq.


Charles Krauthammer is a Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.



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"The Bush administration, having decided that invading one axis-of-evil country was about as much as either the military or the country can bear, has gone multilateral on Iran"

Krauthammer thinks that Bush "decided" enough was enough and chose to go multilateral. In truth Bush had to swallow a large dose of reality in Iraq and had no choice but to crawl back to the world community for help.

Although Krauthammer then goes on to criticise the community he should not be surprised that the "US delegated" committee of three — Britain, France and Germany - have failed to stop Iran going ahead with their nuclear program. The US invasion, war and occupation of Iraq compared with the diplomacy used with North Korea is about as clear a message to EVERY nation in the world - YOU ARE NOT SAFE FROM THE UNITED STATES UNLESS YOU HAVE WMD AND THE CAPACITY TO USE THEM. Welcome to the new arms race.

If nothing is done, a fanatical terrorist regime openly dedicated to the destruction of the "Great Satan" will have both nuclear weapons and the terrorists and missiles to deliver them. All that stands between us and that is either revolution or pre-emptive strike. Both of which, by the way, are far more likely to succeed with 146,000 American troops and highly sophisticated aircraft standing by just a few miles away…

…IN IRAQ.


CHOOSE TO IGNORE REALITY AS YOU MAY, WAR CRITICS.



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I've heard all this crap before. You probably have too because it's exactly what was said about Iraq.

Terrorists most probably will attack the US again and as you know last time they needed nothing more deadly than box butters! But a country would never attack America and except for Japan during a world war never has. Go ahead and live in the fear and fantasy that the Republicans like to peddle because that's just how they want you to think and that's how they get away with the things they get away with.

H@ts,
Youi said:
Go ahead and live in the fear and fantasy that the Republicans like to peddle because that's just how they want you to think and that's how they get away with the things they get away with."

You have a point there.
Sometimes I think we are being sold a bill of goods and then I hear the rhetoric on the right and I think World War III is happening.

But then, I look over the balcony of my house and I see beautiful wilderness and mountains...and I can either think 2 things....
1)I am safe here
or
2)we need these wars to ensure this safety and liberty.

It's quite a pickle to be in.

Wrong. Freedom is "normal." You don't earn it. It's yours. Warhawks are fond of the phrase "freedom isn't free" but guess what? If it isn't free than it isn't really freedom. If someone tries to take freedom, sometimes you have to defend it. But it is a right, not a privelege, and anyone who says otherwise doesn't know what freedom is.

It's air conditioning and stock market shares and an 8 bedroom mansion for a husband, wife, and one child, with 2 SUVs, a sports car, and a luxury vehicle sitting in the driveway that is only attainable through war.

http://www.ozarksfamilyfarm.com/fifusaeagle.gif
http://www.usmemorialday.org/poetry/notfree.gif
I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it,
And then he stood at ease.
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
With hair cut square and eyes alert
He'd stand out in any crowd.
I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mothers' tears?
How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea?
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of taps one night,
When everything was still
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That taps had meant "Amen,"
When a flag had draped a coffin
Of a brother or a friend.
I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.
I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn't free.

http://www.usmemorialday.org/unkwn2sm.jpg

Man are you an idiot! Go wave your little flag!

God Bless America and save it from all the mindless robots!

that's very touching, Joseph.

how about this one

I see you in line dragging your feet
you have my sympathy
the day you were born you were born free
that is your privilege.

If this is not freedom, then I would not desire the alternative.

No civilization is perfection.

Every thing and every one has faults.

But I will cast aside the negatives and bask in my Country's Positives.

Vote your preferences.

I will choose mine.

Living in this country is a privilege I would not want to give up.

All the Anti-American jabs only serve to make me nauseous.

Brain-dead thinking makes me question our educational system, and those who embed mold infected ideas in student heads.

Wait until Iran and North Korea send missiles around the world..better find a deep hiding place.

OMG I can barely believe the postings I see.

Chas. Krauthammer is the best of the Editorial writers. Believe what he writes.

becker:
Chas. Krauthammer is the best of the Editorial writers. Believe what he writes.

Believe Krauthammer? He fully backed the invasion war and occupation of Iraq. And yet he now asks unapologetically "Did we invade the wrong country? One of the lessons now being drawn from the 9/11 report is that Iran was the real threat".

He also continues to repeat the LIE that it was Bush that changed Libyan attitude by "example and intimidation" when it was in fact British foriegn diplomacy, which started a long time before 9/11.

Whenever I see a h@ts post it reminds me of Benny Hill—and that always brings me a good chuckle. For that I am ever grateful to you, h@ts. Hark, I hear the Benny Hill tune once again… ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta…

http://www.vgernet.net/tpelkey/bennyhill/images/scuttle.jpg

H@ts,

Wasn't that Krauthammer bloke the same idiot that Curley Joke used to continually parrot?

No wonder Curley Joke is embarrassed by your remark about Krauthhammer. He's probably trying to distance himself from him now.

I'm surprised that C. Joke hasn't linked the great Benny Hill with Hussein's regime.

Preston

There may be no deus ex machina. If nothing is done, a fanatical terrorist regime openly dedicated to the destruction of the "Great Satan" will have both nuclear weapons and the terrorists and missiles to deliver them. All that stands between us and that is either revolution or pre-emptive strike. Both of which, by the way, are far more likely to succeed with 146,000 American troops and highly sophisticated aircraft standing by just a few miles away — in Iraq.

Yup, seems that Krauthammer has truly reversed his pro-Iraq-war position.

You propagandist clowns need to do considerably better than that.

Hark, I hear that B.H. tune once again… ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta…
http://www.vgernet.net/tpelkey/bennyhill/images/scuttle.jpg

Seems a shame that Joke Curley has been backing the wrong horse all along. My heart bleeds. He should stick to what he knows best - nothing!

Preston the very, very best.

Actually, this Benny Hill's picture in Curley Joke's posts is perfectly appropriate. It is in the right place - the one of a clown. Even if, sorry Benny, I am kind of insulting you because at least YOU were spiritual and caustically comical and salacious. This other one here is all but that - a pathetic clown.

Iran IS next. First pre-emptive strike will be sometime in January 2005. Location: Weapons grade nuclear plant.

Let's just hope that while the US aeroplanes are on the way to Iran they accidentally drop a few WMD on the White House (if Bush is re-elected); finish off what Al Qaeda failed to do.
Ho, ho, ho. Now wouldn't that be a giggle and a quarter.

Hello, Benny. Love you, fella.

Hello, Benny. We love you, fella.

Cargo, you war monger you.

How can we take Curley Joke seriously without his Benny Hill stamp.

Gadzooks!!!!!!!

Gratzky!!!!!!