Elections Have Consequences

The commentary below is an insightful analysis of how Iran is responding to President Obama’s clear signals as to what his Iran policy will be. One week ago Iran launched a domestically manufactured satellite on a ballistic missile that has a range of up to 3,000 kilometers.

In other words, Iran has demonstrated it has the capability to launch conventional and nuclear warheads with a range of as much as 3,000 kilometers.

During the presidential campaign, at times candidate Barack Obama made it clear that a nuclear Iran was “unacceptable.” But these statements were wrapped in his broader foreign policy theme – that it was time for the U.S. to change course and diplomatically engage countries like Iran.

Anyone who even remotely appreciates the horrors of war hopes that diplomatic efforts and/or various non-military sanctions will be successful in “persuading” Iran to abort its nuclear weapons program.

But let’s be realistic here. There is little evidence that existing sanctions have had any impact in changing the Iranian government’s behavior. The Islamist regime continues to move full-speed ahead toward the acquisition of nuclear weaponry. As Iran moves ever closer to achieving this goal, will the Obama administration be willing to do what is necessary to prevent a nuclear Iran, what Obama has termed “unacceptable”?

ACT for America

Israel's Fateful Elections
February 07, 2009
By Caroline Glick 

Tuesday's general elections will officially end the briefest and most nonchalant electoral season Israel has ever experienced. Regrettably, the importance of these elections is inversely proportional to their lack of intensity. These are the most fateful elections Israel has ever had. The events of the past week make this point clearly.

On Monday Iran successfully launched a domestically manufactured satellite on a ballistic missile called the Safir-2 space rocket. Since the launch, experts have noted that the Safir-2 can also be used to launch conventional and nonconventional warheads. The Safir-2 has an estimated range of 2,000-3,000 kilometers. And so the successful satellite launch showed that today Iran is capable of launching missiles not only against Israel, but against southern Europe as well.

Many Israeli leaders viewed Monday's launch as a "gotcha" moment. For years they have been saying that Iran's nuclear program is a threat to global security - not merely to Israel's. And Monday's launch demonstrated that they were right all along. Israel isn't the only country on Iran's target list.

Unfortunately for Israel, the international community couldn't care less. Its response to Teheran's latest provocation was to collectively shrug its shoulders. 

Continued... 

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