Cynical Nation

It seems lots of lefties are working themselves all into a lather over this.

In a conversation lasting more than an hour, Mr. Sharon argued that European nations negotiating with Iran were softening their position and may be willing to allow it to hold on to technology to enrich uranium.

American officials said the evidence Mr. Sharon presented, including aerial photographs of sites in Iran, was neither startling nor new to Mr. Bush. But they said the prime minister was clearly pressuring Mr. Bush not to allow the European negotiations with Iran to drag on.

Those scheming Jews, you see, are once again manipulating the United States into another bogus, unnecessary war.

Here's a bit of advice for you folks. There is still time for your vaunted "international community" to deal with this problem, and that's clearly the scenario that Sharon is lobbying for. I would submit that the energies and efforts of liberals and progressives should be spent similarly, pushing the international community to address the issue of a nuclear Iran squarely and firmly, rather than engaging in empty hand-wringing over what the U.S. or Israel might do should the international community drop the ball.

If the U.N. Security Council does deal with the issue head-on, then great, everyone's happy. If, on the other hand, they merely sit around and yammer, as they did in the Balkans and Rwanda, and as they're doing now in Darfur, then don't start complaining if Bush or Sharon feels compelled to order an Osirak-style raid to prevent Iran from acquiring fissile material.

If that were to happen, you complaint would not be with Bush or Israel. Your complaint would be with an international security apparatus that is utterly ineffectual.