Jewish World Review August 28, 2006 / 4 Elul, 5766

Just one dog in the hunt

By Michael Goodwin

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | I woke up early one day last week and turned on the TV to see if the Iranian madman had blown up the world. The networks were talking about the weather and the cables were in an endless ad pod. I guessed we were still alive.

Count me as another sucker in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's game of Scare the World. His belief in an Islamic "end of days" scenario, combined with threats to wipe Israel off the map and give the world a "surprise" yesterday, had the Internet buzzing and many of us jumpy. He had turned his promised response to demands that Iran stop enriching uranium into a global death watch.

That the day came and went without a Big Bang was a relief, but not entirely surprising. Why would Ahmadinejad end the game when he's raking in oil gazillions and having fun? Whoever heard of him before he started acting like a crazy man with a knife on the subway?

Besides, things are going his way. His client terror groups, Hezbollah and Hamas, are running two governments, and he is stirring the pot in Iraq. Major nations are bidding against themselves to see what incentives it will take for him to padlock his nuke plants. The Great Satan - that would be us - and the Little Satan - Israel - are weakened because of our failures in Iraq and Israel's in Lebanon.

In poker, losers whine and winners say deal. So it is in this ultimate-stakes showdown. Ahmadinejad is a winner, for now, and he wants to keep playing.

That's why his response to the incentive package was bound to be a delay, a bid for more time to make more mischief. But the rest of the world better get serious in a hurry because Iran cannot be permitted to become a nuclear power. If it doesn't stop the enrichment process, it will have enough material for a bomb in short order. How short is unclear, but the time is close enough that endless delays risk Armageddon with someone who welcomes it.

Whatever the details of yesterday's response, Iran's intentions are already crystal clear. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the nation's latest fearsome-sounding "supreme leader," said Monday Iran would "forcefully" continue its nuclear program. Another Iranian government official told of plans to start a related heavy water plant and international inspectors were turned away from a facility, violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Over the weekend, Iran held war games and test-fired missiles.

Any sane person would conclude that Iran is on a collision course with the world. But the United Nations is not made up of sane people, so U.S. Ambassador John Bolton will have a hard time in coming days. With the official deadline of Aug. 31 for Iran to suspend its nuke activities, Bolton must herd the Security Council toward imposing tough economic sanctions.

But China and Russia, with large commercial ties to Iran, are not enthusiastic and France remains occupied by the French. They can be expected to surrender soon.

So the Iranian front, like most of World War III, is left to the U.S. and Great Britain. Germany and Israel are ready to help, but we are basically on our own in ending Iran's follies.

It's a familiar but tiring picture. The dangers of letting Iran go nuclear are obvious. But much of the world is happy to sit on its timid butt and let Uncle Sam do the hard work. All the better to criticize us later.