This Is No Cold War

From IBD:
Posted 4/27/2006

Axis Of Evil: Israeli intelligence is reporting that Iran has missiles that can reach well into Europe. This unsettling revelation came Thursday, the day before Tehran is supposed to halt uranium enrichment.
The United Nations Security Council has ordered Iran to suspend its enrichment program— certainly a precursor to nuclear weapon development — as of Friday or face the possibility of sanctions.

As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday from a foreign ministers meeting in Bulgaria, to remain credible the Security Council has to act if Iran ignores the deadline, which the mullahs and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have already rejected.

"The Security Council is the primary and most important institution for the maintenance of peace and stability and security, and it cannot have its will and its word simply ignored by a member state," Rice said.

Rice likely knows that the Security Council's credibility is about to be crushed because Tehran has no fear of sanctions. Ahmadinejad and the clerics might be crazy by Western — and human — standards. But they are rational enough to know that the feckless U.N. will merely wring its hands if they refuse to cooperate.

Meanwhile, Iran has taken receipt of its first shipment of missiles from North Korea. The Soviet-made BM-25s have a range of roughly 1,500 miles, putting such European cities as Warsaw, Budapest and Vienna within striking distance. Vienna is the home of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, which is allegedly watchdogging Iran's nuclear program.

In other words, Israel — which Ahmadinejad has infamously pledged to wipe off the map — isn't the only potential target of a nuclear-armed Iran.

Europe can't continue merely to wish away the bad men in Tehran before finally settling on a moral- and cultural-relativist acceptance of a nuclear-armed Iran. Is anyone listening?

Europe stakes out "sophisticated" and "nuanced" positions at its own risk. Iran, recall, has warned it will loose 40,000 suicide bombers against U.S. targets and "British sensitive points," should anyone try to thwart Tehran's nuclear ambitions outside of diplomatic channels — which, we should add, have failed and will continue to fail because Iran clearly cannot be trusted. Can there be any doubt that Iran would use nuclear weapons if it had them?

Europe has had nuclear weapons pointed at it before and survived. But this isn't a cold war between two superpowers and their allies. It's a deadly tangle that's been escalated by fanatics who are not swayed by delicate matters such as mutually assured destruction. When a nation's leader is looking forward to scorching the earth so he can usher the return of the 12th imam, the Shiite messiah, then nothing that has gone before counts.

The U.S. and Great Britain have little choice but to get more aggressive toward Tehran. This shouldn't be treated like trade talks, which can go on forever with no resolution; no, this is a grave struggle where real lives hang in the balance and signs of weakness will be exploited by Tehran. For the sake of the West, this crossroads must be traveled with strength.