Hail Mary Pass on Iran

Iran’s nuclear game is in the final quarter….they’re ahead ….and they’re playing out the clock. If they can string us along with diplomacy for a few more months, and forestall sanctions,iran will be the first Muslim country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons.

At this point, is there any way to stop Iran short of bombing? Maybe. Sanctions, with Russian and Chinese cooperation, might be enough to convince the Mullahs to drop their nuclear weapons program, or encourage the growing dissident movement to force a change of government. It’s a Hail Mary pass, but we should give it a try – because the only remaining options – bombing Iran or letting Iran get the bomb – would be catastrophic.

But the sanctions must be crippling – designed to bring Iran’s economy to a screeching halt – and they must be imposed now. If we wait to start sanctions at some vague point in the future AFTER we’ve exhausted diplomacy – the Iranians will make sure negotiations don’t fail…..but they’ll make sure negotiations don’t succeed either. They, like the North Koreans, will keep the hope of diplomacy alive right up to the point they declare ! BINGO ! we’ve got the bomb.

Getting Russia and China to cooperate won’t be easy. Russia sells Iran military equipment and China buys their oil, and neither feel threatened by a nuclear Iran. But the United States and hopefully Germany, France and the United Kingdom, should move ahead with sanctions even if we have to go it alone.

President Obama puts great store in diplomacy and his personal ability to get negotiations going. But diplomacy without leverage isn’t negotiating, it’s begging. And with Iran standing at the threshold of nuclear weapons, and a nuclear arms race and regional conflict hanging in the balance, begging is NOT the right strategy.