Paying Attention

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Quickly – a show of hands.

Who expected Iran to be transparent with the global community regarding their nuclear capabilities, especially now that the American and Iranian elections have past several months ago?

Exactly.

And those who continue to push for more diplomacy with rogue nations such as Iran and North Korea (when that conversation comes up again) will be in for a big surprise when the Obama Administration decides to take on another direction.

If they choose to take on another direction.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton decided to force President Ahmadinejad to “put his money where his mouth is”, asking that Iran show its cards with this secret nuclear facility hidden away in a mountain. Of course, as it was with other world leaders throughout history, any act of disclosure that comes after a series of lies to the international community is going to be highly scrutinized.

Iran wants nuclear weapons and, of its own accord and statements, will not stop until Iran is a nuclear neighbor in the world. From there, Iranian cries calling for the destruction of Israel go from rhetorical rants to real threat on a daily basis.

This may be the point where the current administration gets a better understanding of the (sometimes misguided) approach that presidential predecessors have taken towards the Middle East. Ideally, diplomacy and cooperation would be utilized, but in reality, it’s going to be a continued approach that leverages both military might and economic pressures (i.e., sanctions) that will keep the touchy situations of the Middle East from exploding – both figuratively and literally.

In this era of terrorism, it is vital that the region’s stability be pursued with heightened priority. It is bad enough that nations such as Afghanistan have been viewed as safe havens for our enemies. However, with a nation such as Iran being able to harness the power of nuclear war in one hand and a welcoming handshake of brotherhood for extremists in the other, we stand to lose more lives in the near future. With such nations, we have to have the open hand of negotiations backed up with the heavy hand of force until these countries operate with a level of transparency that secures safety for America and her allies – as well as the rest of the global community.

Right now, there are certainly some relevant nations that are not focused on this goal and, thus, we need to deter diplomacy due to their defiance…especially if we are truly paying attention.