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The Tehran OptionDemocrats criticize Bush's Iran policy, but theirs is almost identical.

By Shmuel RosnerPosted Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2007, at 4:17 PM ET

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Can you do that without going to war? Maybe you can, but only if the Iranians eventually cave to international pressure. All these warnings about the possibility of President Bush dragging America into war with Iran run contrary to the repeatedly stated position that "no option [is] off the table." Keeping "all options" available is intended as a threat: If you do not comply with U.N. resolutions, if you're not impressed with sanctions, we might have to use other tools. This is a threat the Democrats are making, not Bush.

They might not want voters to know this—or perhaps they will never actually reach the point of execution; maybe they'll back out at the last minute. Still, the fact of the matter is that the Democrats' desired outcome of the conflict with Iran is no different from the one Bush reiterates day in and day out, and the tools they have on their menu of options is not much different, either.

Will Democrats be willing to use these tools? Do they believe that a nuclear Iran is as grave a danger as Bush does? The answer to this question was given by the most unlikely of Democratic candidates. It was a long time ago, before he was contemplating a run for the presidency and before he became the darling of the Democratic left. "In light of the fact that we're now in Iraq, with all the problems in terms of perceptions about America that have been created, us launching some missile strikes into Iran is not the optimal position for us to be in," Barack Obama told the Chicago Tribune back in 2004. "On the other hand," he added, "having a radical Muslim theocracy in possession of nuclear weapons is worse. So I guess my instinct would be to err on not having those weapons in the possession of the ruling clerics of Iran."

That wasn't Dick Cheney speaking.

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Shmuel Rosner, a columnist and editor based in Tel Aviv, blogs daily on Rosner's Domain.

Photographs of: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the Slate home page by Majid Saeedi/Getty Images; Sen. Barack Obama by Ben Sklar/Getty Images.

COMMENTS

Remarks from the Fray:

The government of Iran has publicly threatened to exterminate one of its neighbours.

The fact that the neighbour is Israel, or that Iran may or may not be serious, is utterly immaterial.

Only private citizens have the luxury of assuming that Iran is kidding on this issue. American, European, and (especially) Israeli governments do not have this luxury: they are obliged to assume that Iran is serious.

If Canada officially threatened to exterminate Finland and then started to enrich uranium, the rest of the world would be forced to confront it. This is not a complex issue.

--GreenwichJ

(To reply, click here.)

North Korea didn't freeze their program before engaging in direct talks with the US and the other powers.

Why should Iran? [...]

There is no harm in engaging in direct talks with Iran before they "freeze" their program, and then threaten to break them off if they refuse to negotiate in good faith. [...]

The threat of military action has to be real. But there also has to be a legitimate intent by the US and our allies NOT to use force if Iran complies.

Iran, seeing what Bush did to Iraq, isn't buying the BS.

Moreover, the real opinions of Democrats is that they probably don't see Iran as a serious nuclear threat. They probably believe that deterrence will work fine.

I can certainly understand why Israel might feel threatened. And I can certainly understand why Israel would rather US soldiers die and US taxpayers fund a war against their enemies, rather than having to fight or pay for it themselves.

There's a difference, though, between coming to the defense of an ally, and preemptively going to war on behalf of an ally.

--Hesiod2k6

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