Last Friday brought quite a few interesting articles on Iran. This one, titled Gates Says U.S. Has Few Options to Halt Iran's Nuclear Plans, David S. Cloud reports that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently admitted that the US not only has no intention of trying to convince Iran to stop it's nuclear program through force, but they also have no plans to attempt a diplomatic solution any time in the near future. Reasons stated include a lack of bargaining chips on the part of the US, US inability to stabilize Iraq, Iran's determination to stand up to anything the West throws at them. Despite insistence that nothing military is planned for Iran, the US has put a new aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf. However, officials insist that the carrier is just to prove that the US can, "fulfill it's security commitments in the Persian Gulf." The only Iranian-involved action the US admits to is more heavily and determinedly going after Iranian operatives inside Iraq.
While I find it reassuring that our country is not pushing itself into a situation in Iran that would almost definitely lead to military conflict, the fact that there is nothing more diplomatically that we can do terrifies me. The US admitting that it has no influence to control nuclear proliferation in one country does not bode well for preventing proliferation worldwide. I guess we just have to sit back and hope that UN sanctions are enforced to their full extent and are able to cause sufficient economic strain in Iran to lead to force some compromise.
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I think that if no diplomatic effort is made, then the dispute with Iran will almost surely escalate into a military conflict. Obviously a diplomatic effort will not for sure be succesfull, but it is worth a try before the risk of violence.
-Jon Underdahl-Peirce
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