All along I have been of the opinion that the Iranians would be able to avoid sanctions because the Russians and/or the Chinese would stand in the way. I expected this would happen at the Security Council. The outline of how it will go down is clear, now that the head of the IAEA has said he expects a compromise deal to be announced soon between the Russians and the Iranians. If I am right, this deal will allow the Iranians to do some Uranium enrichment on their own soil. This will prove unacceptable to the U.S. (and, possibly, to the U.K., France and Germany). It will, of course, be acceptable to the Russians and Chinese. They will, of course, veto any sanctions proposal in the Security Council, saying that a compromise has been reached and diplomacy was triumphant. They will be joined in their sentiments by Kofi Annan and Dr. El Baredei, as well as others. Thus, the Iranians will continue their nuclear program unabated, and the U.S. will be left without any diplomatic or economic options, leaving only the military option on the table. This option is extremely unpalatable. The American people are tired of the war in Iraq, and the President has no credibility when attempting to justify military action in the Middle East because of weapons of mass destruction. Still, the President might conclude that his poll numbers can't get much worse and, of course, the military will obey his orders should he choose to strike. However, there is still the question of whether or not the consequences of such a strike would be worse than the prospect of allowing Iran to attain nuclear weapons. This will be the calculus the President and his advisors will need to do while coming to a decision. Then, of course, there are the Israelis, who are weighing an existential threat against the consequences of a strike. My prediction is that the U.S. will not strike, but the Israelis will.

Leon de Winter says his fellow Europeans are now no longer willing to fight for anything, except, possibly, a welfare check. Meanwhile, in his native Holland, the government is considering a burqa ban.

Bill Crawford has an excellent rundown of all the good news from Iraq that you won't read about in the MSM.

This USA Today story about deserters is actually good news. It seems desertion rates from the U.S. military have declined since 9/11. Of course, there are always deserters, in peace and war. When I was in the Army during basic training we had one of the men in my platoon desert. We called it "going over the hill". He was caught, of course, and given a less-than-honorable discharge.