Iran: NOT Full of "Madmen"

Bob over at "The Hue and Cry" offers a good strong antidote to some of the hyperbole making the rounds about the threat Iran's nuclear program. Specifically, he's referring to Jackson Diehl's column in today's Washington Post in which Diehl implictly gives credence to the fears that once Iran goes nuclear mushroom clouds over Israel will shortly follow. Bob says Diehl, as well as Lieberman and McCain, should know better:

It's no secret that international criminals like bin Laden and his ragtag followers would be delighted to use a WMD against Western civilian populations, and that is a horrifying possibility we must do everything within our power to prevent. But equating Iran and its hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with bin Laden is recklessly disingenuous.

For while Ahmadinejad is confrontational, deplorable, and volatile, he's not a fool. He is the elected leader of a sovereign nation, and as such, unlike bin Laden and his widely scattered band of thugs, the Iranian president knows full well the immediate consequence that would befall his entire nation if he actually did develop a nuclear weapon and was careless enough to use it.

Remember, kids? It's called the nuclear deterrent. Mutually assured destruction. It's the dynamic that exists between all members of the atomic club. It's the chief reason that Russia and the U.S. aren't lying in uninhabitable, smoking ruin. Well, that... and the fact that they've kept talking and negotiating. Something that Messrs. Diehl, McCain, and Lieberman would have us believe is not a viable option with a still-unarmed Iran.

In addition, most intelligent and reliable analysts agree that Ahmadinejad's undisputedly reprehensible rhetoric has been primarily political in nature, designed to shore up hard-line support within his government and not as an actionable threat. Of course, he bears close scrutiny and monitoring by internationally recognized agencies. But even if his ultimate goal is to obtain nuclear weaponry, it is not the most severe and "unsolvable" situation ever faced by the free peoples of the world (gasp!), and the U.S. should certainly be able to resolve this non-crisis without resorting to a military option that will fuel genuine, retaliatory hatred among Iranians for generations to come.

Of course, over-stating the threat is what got us into the mess in Iraq. We'd be wise to look at Iran more carefully, realize that Iran is acting largely in it's own self interst, and respond accordingly. Give the Iranians security, and they'll likely give up the nukes. No it's not an easy dilemma to resolve, but there are more options besides letting them have the nukes or bombing them to stop it.