Investor's Business Daily, May 23rd, 2007
Middle East: As Iran continues to defy world demands that it halt its illicit nuclear program, a U.S. armada steams just off the Iranian coast. Good thing. Those ships might come in handy real soon.
On Wednesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency issued another report underscoring Iran's refusal to halt a uranium-enrichment program that all evidence suggests will lead to the manufacturing of nuclear weapons.
Unfortunately, this is par for the course. On March 24, the U.N. Security Council imposed a 60-day deadline for Iran to stop its enrichment activities. This is the second time Iran has let a U.N. deadline come and go.
Tired of the game, the U.S. now seems to be trying to send a message -- perhaps not just to Iran, but to the rest of the world as well. That message is: Get serious, or we'll get serious for you.
The U.S. just sent the Bonhomme Richard Strike Group -- a force of nine warships and 17,000 Marines and sailors -- into the Gulf.
At the same time, ABC News reports that the CIA has begun funding the opposition in Iran to destabilize its extremist Islamic regime. Earlier this week, the Pentagon accused Iran of plotting a major summer offensive in Iraq against the U.S., using al-Qaida, Sunni and Shiite terrorist groups to do their dirty work.
Add it all up, and we're making a strong case for taking action -- and soon. Sanctions can only go so far.
Iran now says it will have 3,000 centrifuges at work at various sites around the country by the end of June. That's enough uranium processing capacity to make a bomb within a year, experts say.
Though most of the world doesn't see it, Iran's threat is growing by the day. It admits to having acquired plans for a nuke from Pakistani nuclear mastermind A.Q. Khan. Both the White House and European spy agencies think Iran could have a workable nuclear bomb within two years, almost certainly within three.
Once that happens, all bets are off.
Yet the U.N. shows few signs of getting tough on Iran any time soon. The so-called G3 -- Britain, France and Germany -- say they want to ratchet up economic sanctions. Fine, but they have to bite. If Iran doesn't obey, then what?
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has lied repeatedly about his nation's nuclear program and resisted all efforts to end it. His repeated threats against Israel, the U.S. and Europe should be taken seriously.
By the way, this is starting to look like the charade with Iraq. When Saddam Hussein's regime cheated on sanctions, enabled by corrupt U.N. bureaucrats and ignored by Europe's feckless diplomats, the U.S. had to send troops in to remove him.
Today, Iran is primed for overthrow. Its economy is a shambles, with unemployment at 25% or more, inflation at 20% and 40% of its people living below poverty. Fully a quarter of its population is 15 years or younger, and they've grown angry at the repression and lack of opportunity that Iran's mullahs represent.
We seem to be edging ever closer to making it our official goal to get rid of Ahmadinejad and his pals. That may be the next logical step, after economic sanctions fail -- as they're likely to do.
As we said, those nine warships may come in handy.
