The words are there like we take this seriously, but what does this even mean?
"This really, in the minds of many diplomats and government officials, crosses a line that Iran needs to be held to account for," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday. She said she and President Barack Obama want to "enlist more countries in working together against what is becoming a clearer and clearer threat" from Iran.
But the actions are more sanctions. More economic and diplomatic "pressure." Iran angrily denies the allegation. I don't know, but I don't see any line. And I don't see any defense of that line. Iran's past actions deserve far more than what we've done, and new sanctions won't even catch up. Nothing we or the sainted international community have done already has been bad enough to deter Iran from supporting terrorism and seeking nuclear weapons.
Our refusal to treat an act of war by Iranian actors as an act of war does nothing to persuade any potential enemy that we will fight back. If we won't respond to a plot to attack us in our own capital, where would we respond?
Enemies now have every reason to think we won't fight if they attack us. So someone will attack us over the next year hard enough that we have to notice.
NOTE: And yes, I did accidentally post an early draft of this prior to the plot announcement. My intent was to finish it this morning after starting it last night. So that's why it appeared, disappeared, and reappeared in new form.
