20060111
       This is a notice to the world: on 10 January 2006, Iran broke the seals placed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the facilities it uses to enrich uranium, there by breaking its diplomatic agreements with the IAEA, UN, and European Union. At the moment this breech occurred, diplomacy failed.
         Because of this failure, further diplomatic actions are extremely suspect as to whether they can be useful or successful. Under other circumstances, the nations of the world, especially the West, could be forgiven for trying to pursue more diplomacy, but in the case of Iran, this route just brings the entire world closer to nuclear danger.
         Prime Minister Tony Blair, a staunch US ally, announced today that the Western nations plan to enact ‘tough new sanctions’ against Iran because of its breech of its agreements regarding its nuclear programs. What exactly are these tough new sanctions supposed to accomplish?
         Let the West explain to Israel, who now must consider itself very much under the threat of nuclear annihilation, why they should accept the promise of sanctions against a nation whose chief of state recently vowed to ‘wipe it off the map’. Let the West consider, as its own troops operate within Iran’s reach in Afghanistan and Iraq, how it will explain to its citizens when those troops disappear in a nuclear flash.
         Now is not the time for sanctions; it is the time for action. Rather than sanctions, the West should consider directly funding opposition groups inside and outside Iraq. The West should consider training and arming select groups of Iranian dissidents for a potential fight inside Iran. The West should begin repositioning and enlarging its presence in the region for a potential military confrontation with Iran.
         Let no one mistake, Iran with nuclear weapons- indeed any weapons of mass destruction- is a danger even greater than Iraq or North Korea could ever be. Iran is a nation of fundamental radicalism, led astray by a conquerors dream of forcing its view on the world by whatever means necessary. If this nation comes to possess these weapons, it will use them.
         The call now must be for action, not more diplomacy. This is not a call for warmongering; this is a call for something to be done before it is too late. The West cannot make the same mistake that it did with Hitler and Nazi Germany before World War Two. Appeasement will not work with the likes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the ayatollahs of Iran, whether it takes the form of concessions or sanctions. The only language left to us now is the one of force. Pray that language is spoken before it is too late.
DLH
