By William R. Hawkins
FrontPageMagazine.com | Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Snippet…
The Bush hard line cannot be called “counter productive” if it has been successful in forcing Iran to halt its nuclear weapons program. Is that not what the objective has been? A successful outcome, even if partial or tentative, should not be abandoned, especially when facing leaders like Ahmadinejad and Kim who have a record of deception and violence. As the new NIE notes, “Iran has the scientific, technical, and industrial capacity to produce nuclear weapons if it decides to do so.” The United States and its allies must continue to tell Tehran in no uncertain terms that it must not decide to build such weapons, and to block Iran from acquiring the specific means needed to build such weapons as long as the country is ruled by an “axis” regime. What one of America’s greatest presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, said remains true today, “Diplomacy is utterly useless where there is no force behind it.”
William R. Hawkins is Senior Fellow for National Security Studies at the U.S. Business and Industrial Council in Washington, D.C.
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