US prepared to strike Iran

President Bush has stepped up the rhetoric in preparation for a strike on Iran. We have enough forces in the region, and they've prepared long enough, that we could take out Iran's nuclear facilities, the leadership, and the military while securing the Straits of Hormuz and Iran's off-shore oil production. No doubt our forces are prepared for an all-out, devastating attack, or a more limited attack, on short notice.

But Bush learned a terrible lesson about using too few troops and too little force in Iraq. If Bush decides to strike Iran, he has nothing to gain by limiting the strike. He will gain no goodwill with anti-war Americans, the international community, or the Iranian people by limiting the strike. If we are to attack at all, the best option is to do the most damage possible to the Iranian regime and military to degrade its ability to strike back and support terrorist proxies that will carry out retaliatory strikes.

French President Sarkozy's statement that the only way to avoid a strike on Iran was for Iran to give up its nuclear weapon program is a vote of confidence from an historically unlikely source. Sarkozy's statement was not an endorsement for an assault, but it clearly expresses France's position that Iran must stop trying to develop a nuclear weapon or get bombed. It had none of the typical European weakness, there was no implication of acceptance of a nuclear armed Iran as a fait accompli, and there was no hint of a policy of containment. This is a major policy shift for France in support of hawks.

Ahmadinejad's warning that Iran is poised to fill the power vacuum in Iraq after the US leaves plays right into the hawks' hands. I've long contended that Ahmadinejad is inviting an attack from the US, that Ahmadinejad wants nothing more than to be killed by the US in what he envisions as martyring his entire nation in the battle against the infidel. This announcement supports my contention. He couldn't have said anything more damaging to the anti-war movement in the US. Americans won't stand for a pullout of Iraq that surrenders the country to Iran.

Ahmadinejad also said its friend Saudi Arabia would help fill the vacuum. That's the same Saudi Arabia which is buying $20 billion in weapons from the US to resist Iranian aggression. Ahmadinejad's comment seems as much a taunt of the Saudis as it is the US. Ahmadinejad's description of the region, post US pullout from Iraq, describes a regional war that must be taken seriously by the most rabid anti-war politician.

But while support seems to be building for a strike, thanks to Ahmadinejad, it would be premature at this point. Britain hasn't joined the rhetoric, but in hindsight it seems that Bush's meeting with Brown then Sarkozy laid the groundwork for this action. We're unlikely to hear from Australian PM Howard on this issue because of his re-election campaign.

We have yet to apply our full economic might to sanctioning Iran. US investors are divesting Iran, but that's just begun, and we could do a lot more. The US should ban any company that does business with Iran's energy, military or government sector from doing business in the US. Even Iran's sponsors and protectors, China and Russia, couldn't stand to lose American business. But Bush has not implemented such a ban, and neither have the presidential candidates of either party called for such a ban, but all have stepped up rhetoric against Iran.

Unfortunately, it seems our government is more afraid of upsetting foreign companies and countries than it is of risking US lives and killing Iranians.

It looks like President Bush and the Mullahs are on a collision course that will dramatically change the face of the Middle East and grant Ahmadinejad his wish of national martyrdom. Critics say this strike will create more terrorists, and maybe it will. Some surviving Iranian military personal will likely turn to terrorism in response.

But those terrorists, and existing terrorists, will no longer have the Revolutionary Guards or the Quds force to train and support them. Hezbollah, Hamas, the Taliban, the Mahdi Army and others will no longer have Iranian money and equipment to supply them. Syria will no longer have Iranian money to support terror. The terrorists supported by the world's greatest state sponsor of terror will lose their major financier.

All those terror groups will retaliate. Hezbollah will attack Israel. Iran's terrorist proxies all over the world will try to execute attacks. The world will have to weather a terrorist storm. But those terrorists won't be resupplied by Iran. The networks will be disrupted indefinitely or fall apart. And most important of all, the terrorists will lose their future source of nuclear weapons.