Posted by
Jay Noble on Wednesday, December 20, 2006 10:43:11 AM
The six party talks regarding the North Korean nuclear program have reconvened. They will go nowhere. By
The lack of meaningful reaction by the United States and the U.N. to the explosion of a nuclear device by the North Koreans has emboldened the North Korean leadership. Negotiation with thugs is an oxymoron; such people understand only the language of force. Sensing correctly that no one has the stomach to aggressively confront them, we can expect the North Koreans to soon up the ante by exploding one or more additional nuclear devices and export their knowledge to other rogue regimes. Such is one consequence of the failure of nerve which has infected the American government.
Today comes the assertion by the Iranian president that Iran is a nuclear power. It seems inevitable that Iran will test a nuclear device in the near future. Soon, then, a regime lead by a certifiable lunatic who daily speaks of a future in which the United States has disappeared and threatens to wipe Israel from the map will possess nuclear weapons. Unlike other nuclear powers, and even the North Koreans, Iran is more than likely to use a nuclear bomb.
For years Iran has ignored and brushed aside warnings concerning its nuclear program, which have uttered by the United States, the European Union and Israel. President Bush has said repeatedly that an Iran with nuclear weapons is unacceptable. Yet the United States has abdicated dealing with the Iranians to the Europeans and the United Nations, with the predictable result that nothing has happened to retard the Iranian program. The President betrayed American national interest by subcontracting this issue to parties who lacked the leverage or will to effective deal with the problem.
George Bush now has a decision to make. The Iranians are counting on the president's domestic opponents and his preoccupation with Iraq preventing him from taking aggressive action to eliminate or significantly setback their nuclear program. Bush has said that a nuclear armed Iran is unacceptable. Will he act, or will the Iranians join the North Koreans in demonstrating the hollowness of American warnings?