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Charles Krauthammer’s latest re the standoff in Iran is an absolute must-read. Those who advise President Obama to equivocate now, at a crucial moment in history, must believe – mistakenly – that there can be a meaningful dialogue with the current government in Tehran on the subject of nuclear weapons and terrorism. But as Krauthammer says, the hope that non-confrontationalist appeasement will ever wring any important compromises from the pitiless regime that rules Iran is a chimera.
Even from the narrow perspective of the nuclear issue, the administration’s geopolitical calculus is absurd. There is zero chance that any such talks will denuclearize Iran. On Monday, President Ahmadinejad declared yet again that the nuclear “file is shut, forever.” The only hope for a resolution of the nuclear question is regime change, which (if the successor regime were as moderate as pre-Khomeini Iran) might either stop the program, or make it manageable and nonthreatening.
For those who like to think strategically, realize there is no upside to remaining silent, only the prospect of dealing with an implacable, immovable enemy from an even greater position of weakness. Conversely, the downside, that an Iran free of the mullahs’ oppression and terrorism never comes into being, is immense.
