Stopping Iran

Iran has pledged to continue its atomic program, as Europe's negotiators are humiliated:

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran will never again suspend conversion of uranium ore, but it is willing to pursue talks with the European Union about its uranium enrichment program, Tehran officials said Sunday.

The comments came as Iran’s new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, nominated hard-liners for all his key ministries, signaling the likelihood of an intensified confrontation with the United States and Europe over the nuclear program.

Iran already rejected Thursday’s resolution from the U.N. nuclear agency urging it to halt the conversion of uranium into gas at its atomic plant in Isfahan. Conversion is a step before enrichment, which produces material usable for both energy-producing reactor fuel and atomic bombs.

After the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board issued its appeal, diplomats familiar with the proceedings said Iran was being given until Sept. 3 to halt uranium conversion or risk being referred to the U.N. Security Council for consideration of sanctions.

Needless to say, if Iran gets the bomb, we can't assume they'll act benignly, since they've been in a state of war with us since 1979 and open each session of their puppet-parliament with rousing chants of "Death to America!" to this very day.

If they have it, then their terror proxies have it, and they can't be assumed to be deterrable.

Instead, we'll then have to choose between surrendering to nuclear blackmail or being destroyed, or taking the last option of having to annihilate much of the Middle East, with the possibility of mass casualties here at home as well.

Far better to stop them NOW, with conventional weapons, and relatively lower loss of life. Target the leadership, the religious centers in Qom, the hardline militias, and the uranium processing plants. No need to "occupy" them conventionally.

Just keep killing whoever's in charge until they change their policies.

No?

For that other branch of the decision tree has no good outcomes, once they get the bomb.

The good news is, President Bush has said the following recently on Israeli TV:

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - President Bush said on Israeli television he could consider using force as a last resort to press Iran to give up its nuclear programme.

"All options are on the table," Bush, speaking at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, said in the interview broadcast on Saturday.

Asked if that included the use of force, Bush replied: "As I say, all options are on the table. The use of force is the last option for any president and you know, we've used force in the recent past to secure our country."

That W, he sure knows how to drive them crazy!

Speaking of crazy, Germany's Schroeder then chimed in unhelpfully,

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has warned the US to back away from the possibility of military action against Iran over its nuclear programme.

His comments come a day after President Bush reiterated that force remained an option but only as a last resort.
...
“Let’s take the military option off the table. We have seen it doesn’t work,” Mr Schroeder told Social Democrats at the rally in Hanover, to rapturous applause from the crowd.

Mr Schroeder said it remained important that Iran did not gain atomic weapons, and a strong negotiating position was important.

Well Gerhard, you just made your negotiating position impotent, didn't you? And how have we seen that it "doesn't work"?

Force took out your Nazi predecessors, didn't it?

Force took out Hussein's regime, didn't it?

Well, a rebuttal quickly came from Senator McCain:

WASHINGTON - The president must keep open a military option in dealing with Iran and its nuclear program, Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) said Sunday, calling recent Bush comments appropriate.

"For us to say that the Iranians can do whatever they want to do and we won't under any circumstances exercise a military option would be for them to have a license to do whatever they want to do," the Arizona Republican said on "Fox News Sunday."

I wonder what the Democrats have to say. Or are they as insanely useless as the Germans?