The Iran Crisis: Five and a Half Questions

How can it be the policy of the United States to fear both the development of an Iranian nuclear capability and the one surefire way to lance the boil that doesn’t involve a US attack? Isn’t the wisdom of keeping Israel out of NATO that Israel then cannot be stopped from taking on risk in the pursuit of violent ventures which Americans ‘won’t do’ but from which they benefit? Do we or don’t we want to halt Iran’s diabolical scheme? Or is it that only we can ‘get it right’? Does that really sound plausible anymore? Especially when ‘getting it right’ might involve — but wait, I was about to explain why bombing Iran isn’t a very good idea from an American perspective for any reason. Though I really do bet that if Israel struck, the world would reject an Iranian counterattack on US assets. Even Russia would have to suck it up. Think about it.