IRAN RESPONDS

Iranian officials have handed over their response to the incentive package offered by the U.S., the Europeans, Russia and China concerning their nuclear program. It appears that the August 22 date does not have any apocalyptic significance. The Iranian actions, so far, appear to be quite rational, which provides powerful evidence that the doomsayers are wrong and the Iranians can be deterred, even if they go nuclear, which seems inevitable.

Joel Rosenberg says the Iranians are not rational, but can be called the new Nazi Germany. If so, they cannot be deterred. Robert Tracinski also takes the view that we cannot wait on events. I disagree. As long as the American people are not politically behind robust military action, that action will fail, as we saw in Vietnam and are seeing now in Iraq. If we are to fight another war, this time against Iran, a war that will be much larger and more difficult than the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, we must have the united support of the American people at the very least. Certainly it would be even better to have the support of the Europeans and the acquiescence, if not support, of Russia and China. To have that kind of support we will have to wait for the Iranians to strike the first blow. While it would no doubt save lives and prevent suffering if we were to prevent the Iranians from striking that blow it is more important, in my view, to have the complete support of the American people to wage the kind of total war that will be necessary to destroy Islamic Fascism, just as a similar effort destroyed Fascism in the 1940s. As in the period of 1939-41, America must wait until we are attacked before we can use all our power to finish the fight.