Understanding the Danger

Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu

said he saw cracks in the Iranian leadership during a visit to Washington.

My opinion? Wishful thinking. However the Chairman goes on to make several other important points.

Netanyahu, who met with US Vice President Dick Cheney and a group of senators, said that the Iranian nuclear program could be stopped if the United States led a determined campaign.

It is pretty obvious that there has not been much determination so far. Iran wanted until August 22 to announce its most recent decision. The UN gave it until 31 August. Not much pressure at all. In fact you could call it a vacuum. The Iranians want to stall? Well we will fool them. We will give them an extra week. See how they like that!

Netanyahu then goes on to say that real sanctions backed by military power have a chance to work.

Netanyahu said the senators asked him about the military option. He responded by saying that it would have be a layer in addition to sanctions. If there was a military option – there was a large chance that it would not have to be used at all, Netanyahu said. He added that the Iranians were attempting to test their room for maneuver.

Now comes the most interesting point of all:

The Likud leaders stressed that Iran is not only threatening Israel.

Israel would be the first target of Iran's nuclear weapons, but not it's last, Netanyahu said.

He refused to give details about his meeting with Cheney, but said that the people he spoke with in Washington understood the danger.

You know it is really too bad this President doesn't understand the value of mobilizing the American people. It is probably the President's most important job in war time. As much as I support Bush's war policies, I must say that he has done a lousy job of mobilizing the American people to support fundamental policies that should be bi-partisan. Like the ending of the opressive theocratic regime in Teheran.