Consequences of Appeasement

For several years now, Iran has unrelentingly

• spewed anti-western bombast
  
  
• directly threatened Israel, the United States, and (more recently) Europe
  
  
• supplied, aided, and trained the terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan -- leading to the deaths and injury of many U.S. soldiers
  
  
• fought barely-disguised proxy wars (through the Iranian financed and controlled Hamas) in Lebanon and Palestine, against Israel
  
  
• actively pursued a nuclear weapons program, while poking a stick in the world's eye by laughably calling it a nuclear power program

None of this is disputed by any serious observer. Even the corrupt jerks in the UN and EU "admit" all of these as facts. For years, "strong statements", "stern letters", "sanctions", "diplomacy", and (my favorite) "negotiations" have been the only action the world has taken to stop the Iranians -- who, by their own boisterous statements, have the intention of killing everyone who is not a Muslim of their liking. That would include me, so I have a personal interest in this fight.

Now comes the claim from Iran that they have 100 kg (about 220 pounds) of enriched uranium on hand. Assuming this is true (a big assumption, given the source of the claim), the Iranians are years ahead of the schedule the IAEA projected just a month ago -- and they have enough materials for several weapons right now. Right now!

The IAEA is, naturally, quite concerned. So concerned that they've met with the Iranians and they've come up with a plan. Thank goodness they've got a plan! Let's see now ... what is this plan?

The U.N. nuclear watchdog director said on Friday he and Iran's chief negotiator had agreed to draw up an "plan of action" within two months on how to resolve questions about Iran's disputed nuclear program.

International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei said he hoped the stalemate of the last weeks could be broken and described the two-hour meeting with Ali Larijani as "quite satisfying".

So ... the plan is to "draw up a plan" within two months. That's it? The Iranians want to kill us all with nuclear weapons, and our plan to stop them is to draw up a plan? I have no doubt at all that the Iranians found this most satisfying -- I'm sure they had trouble suppressing their giggling at the "negotiations".

To anyone who has read of the rise of Adolf Hitler and the run-up to World War II, this is eerily familiar territory. The consequence of that particular appeasement path was that Hitler finally took an action that the rest of Europe couldn't sit back and ignore -- but by the time that happened, he had already built a powerful military and had completely locked down his control of Germany. The Iranians appear to be on that same path, the rest of the world is reacting right out of the same playbook that Chamberlain used.

Except for one oasis of sanity: Israel. They have quietly said, many times, that Iran "shall not be allowed" to become a nuclear power. The U.S. has made similar statements, but somehow I find the Israelis to be more ... credible ... on this point. In the news this week: the Israeli Air Force is training for long-range missions. It's hard to imagine any reason for them to do so other than an attack on Iran. I'd personally love to see a joint U.S./Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, but I suspect I'm dreaming of something unlikely there. We're behaving too much like the IAEA and the EU for us to make such a bold and useful move. Much more likely is that the Israelis will do this on their own, to which I will say "Thank you, my friends."