For those in doubt, observe the Top Whackjob of the Number One Slot in the rump Axis of Evil:
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel a "permanent threat" to the Middle East that will "soon" be liberated. He also appeared to again question whether the Holocaust really happened.
"Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation," Ahmadinejad said at the opening of a conference in support of the Palestinians. "The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm."
Ahmadinejad provoked a world outcry in October when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map."
On Friday, he repeated his previous line on the Holocaust, saying: "If such a disaster is true, why should the people of this region pay the price? Why does the Palestinian nation have to be suppressed and have its land occupied?"
The land of Palestine, he said, referring to the British mandated territory that includes all of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, "will be freed soon."
He did not say how this would be achieved, but insisted to the audience of at least 900 people: "Believe that Palestine will be freed soon."
"The existence of this (Israeli) regime is a permanent threat" to the Middle East, he added. "Its existence has harmed the dignity of Islamic nations."
So there you have it. You don't deter something whose very existence is objectionable. And the Top Nutjob promises Israel will be annihilated in one storm and that the Palestinians will be freed soon.
I just don't believe that Iran is boasting of its impending 15% increase in electrical generating capacity. Perhaps that's just my suspicious mind at work, eh? I mean, we've probably all gotten used to our state public service commission announcing an increase in electrical capacity and then following up with a denunciation of Ohio and a threat to destroy Ohio State University. Yep. As naturally as day follows night, killing the Jews follows increasing your electricity generating capacity.
This article leads me to several questions. And I mean other than what the people in the West who defend Iran's "right" to go nuclear are smoking in their pipes.
First, just what outrage did the world really have when Ahmadinejad called for the destruction of Israel in October 2005? Did I miss the worldwide determination to halt Iran's nuclear drive that resulted? Or even admit Iran is seeking to get and use nuclear weapons? The outrage was only that the mullahs were impolite enough to openly state their goals and make the vaunted international community's refusal to act just a tad embarrassing given much of the world's efforts to surrender to the mullahs without too much fuss. But the world has gotten over that. They'll get over this latest one.
Two, just how close are the Iranians to nuclear weapons that they feel bold enough to be far more direct in their declarations of intent to destroy Israel? Is this kind of rhetoric consistent with a capability that is ten years off as some like to assure us? Given our intelligence failures on other nuclear programs in the past, is it safe to assume Iran is far from nukes? I mean, confidently threatening a known nuclear power as Iran is doing if you don't have nukes nearly in hand truly is beyond insanity.
And three, when do we start bombing? How anybody can deny that the default solution is a really thorough aerial campaign with as many supporting means as we can deploy, a few shamed allies, and perhaps even after passing the "global test" is beyond me. (Assuming, of course, that our CIA is completely unable to foment a revolt in time.)
We must stop Iran and diplomacy won't do the trick. The price our world will pay if we don't stop the Iranians is too high to contemplate.
Lovely decade we're having, eh? And you know the really depressing part? War against Iran now is the least bad option by far.
UPDATE: Other members of the Iranian regime are acting pretty confident:
"The enemy should know Iran is not comparable to any country in the world. Now we are much more powerful than before," senior cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Janati told worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran.
"The United States is a decaying power. Don't be intimidated by their threats. They don't have the stamina to do anything," said the head of Iran's Guardian Council, a powerful political watchdog.
Pretty brave talk from a country that has just made great strides toward energy self-sufficiency, eh?
Of course, if they are counting on nuclear missiles to back up that talk it makes a whole lot more sense, don't you think?
