Iran: Thanks, but no thanks

Just about a decade ago, New York socialite Iris Sawyer said, "I think there’s a point at which money, influence, and power become so blinding that people believe they control the world." That certainly appears true when it comes to BushCo and their attitude towards Iran. But the leaders in Tehran simply aren't buying it.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator said Tuesday that Tehran wanted to resolve decades of differences with the United States and warned that a U.S. military strike wouldn't destroy all of Iran's nuclear facilities.

Iran's top leaders have tried in recent days to ease increasing tensions with Washington amid a war of words. U.S. President George W. Bush last week accused Iran of being "the world's primary state sponsor of terror."

"We are not seeking tension with the United States," negotiator Hasan Rowhani told the state-run television. "We are seeking to resolve our problems with America but it's the Americans who don't want problems be resolved."

"There is no problem in today's world that can't be resolved," said Rowhani, who is secretary of Iran's powerful Supreme National Security Council.

It doesn't really matter whether we bomb Iran first or we surreptitiously get Israel to do it for us. The result is going to be the same. Iran will lash out, having demonstrated over the last three decades that they have little tolerance for aggressive tactics. Like many of the smaller countries across the water that we like to push around, they don't really have the ability to launch any sort of serious direct military attack on the United States mainland. They do, however, have three other avenues of response.

• First, they could launch a strike at Israel. I think most of the Arab Street sees an attack on Israel as being the moral equivalent of an attack on the US.
• Second, they can use their ties to various Islamic terrorist groups to push for a 9/11 type attack on US soil.
• Last - if they are feeling particularly frisky - there is an army of 150,000 American soldiers next door in Iraq that are most certainly within striking distance.

Dubya and Condi had better start stepping a bit more daintily around Tehran. The Europeans are working seven days a week to find avenues of diplomatic progress with the Iranians. The consistent refusal of the Bush administration to do anything which would "lend credibility" to the government in Iran is the type of hubris which will lead to disaster.