The time is not ripe and we are not morally prepared to take on Iran now

Submitted by Sully (United States), May 14, 2006 at 01:33

If we (the U.S.) take on Iran now we will do at best a half hearted job of it, as we have in Iraq where we should have toppled Saddam and then stood aside to let the Shiites and Kurds engage in unhindered payback against the Iraqi Sunnis who formed Saddam's base of support. A similar half hearted effort in Iran will indeed inflame Muslims worldwide, and will moreover confirm the current opinion among Muslims that confronting the U.S. or tolerating the activities of agents who attack the U.S. does not carry with it the risk of outright obliteration.

It will be several years before the Iranians achieve deliverable nuclear weapons. A lot can happen in several years. Their effort may stall. Their will or courage may falter. The current Islamist regime can fall. Iranian outreach may take the form of attack on the Gulf States or Saudi Arabia.

And in the event Iran does eventually get nukes and actually use one against the U.S. that will be the only sort of goad that will drive us to do what we or our children are eventually going to have to do in any event in order to settle the expansionist aims of Islam for a significant period of time.

Following such an attack any U.S. politician who expects to remain in office will have no alternative but to make of Iran an example that will resound for a hundred years.

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