going about this in the wrong way.....

One of our favorite things to worry about is Iran. When we say 'Iran' we think of nut cases with nukes and terror and the end of all things.

With good reason.

When the UN says 'Iran', it is usually in the same sentence with the words 'sanctions' and 'nuclear'.

Who is everyone kidding? We are going to sanction them? C'mon, that is like a spoiled child threatening not to take his/her allowance. The regime in Tehran is actively pursuing a nuclear capability for their military, and they will get it.

Let them.

To be blunt, short of stopping them with a lot of air power, there is nothing that we can do about it. We aren't going to do that, and everyone knows it, but we have a friend in the neighborhood that might. We should do all that we can to discourage that kind of thinking, on all sides. Every nation that has set out to build a nuke has succeeded, very nearly on the first try, (tho the DPRK's first demonstration was a bit of a puny runt, perhaps in honor of the puny runt leader...), but I digress there.

Once the Iranians have the bomb, they will be stuck with it. They won't be able to use it, the cost will be too high, (deterrence is a wonderful thing). They will have to live with the responsibility of being a leader among nations, (see how well that turned out for Pakistan---nikes are not a lot of help when it comes time to hang, or shoot, the incumbent President in favor of the next big thing....).

It is time to leave the Iranian problem to the UN, and concentrate on the real burr under our saddle, and take care of it. First, there is al-quaida, and its lapdog, the Taliban, then, the problem of keeping the indigenous people happy enough that these two social cancers are unable to return to any significant level of power.

I have suggested that the US actually buy the poppy crop that produces the opium that finances these movements and upsets the social order in the west. Frankly, we buy a lot of crops for no good reason, and if it keeps these people occupied and out of trouble, then so be it.

Next, lets try out some of that health care stuff on them. Vaccinate them, take care of the barest of essentials, support benign religious training that does not condemn us, (or anyone else), and see what we can do to support a social order without arming anyone. Provide a cellular, radio and TV infrastructure that would bleed over into Iran, so those folks might also know that we are not completely bad, and let things go as they will. We can't stop it, we can only bankrupt ourselves and piss the rest of the world off in trying.

How's that for cynical?