Terror Debate

Tuesday, October 05, 2004

Suddenly Iran!

Iran somehow has become a hot topic. Is it because Iran parliament begins push for resumption of uranium enrichment? Is it because Iran Says It Has Increased Missile Range? What about internal uprisings? Or maybe everyone is noticing because Iranian hardliners cancel embassy music concerts?

So now Iran is coming to the fore. Here's the question: will we look at them tactically or strategically. Michael Ledeen writes:


Like Afghanistan before it, Iraq is only one theater in a regional war. We were attacked by a network of terrorist organizations supported by several countries, of whom the most important were Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. President Bush's original analysis was correct, as was his strategy: We must not distinguish between the terrorists and their national supporters. Hence we need different strategies for different enemies, but we need to defeat all of them.

Here's what the terror debate is really about: Are you willing to defeat the terror supporters in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia?