Decision Time on Iran Nukes is Approaching

This is a story that is getting old, and tiring to repeat, but is clearly still the most dangerous issue on the immediate horizon. Iran Defies U.N. Security Council Demands to Stop Uranium Enrichment. Clearly Iran is marching rapidly toward the bomb and nobody is doing a thing about it. I can't imagine that George Bush will sit back and tolerate on his watch the establishment of Iran as a nuclear power. That more than anything else will determine his legacy, Iraq is a minor skirmish in comparison. The fact that the US Navy is engaging in a massive unannounced exercise off of the Iranian coast today is perhaps a hint that action will be taken to prevent the catastrophe of an Iranian bomb. And there seems to be a growing consensus that resistance to the Iranian nuclear efforts must be accelerated. French President Nilocas Sarkozy called today to tighten sanctions on Iran, and that France will join the US in its efforts to halt the Iranian march to the bomb. Sarkozy warned that if Iran attains nuclear weapons, a road to an arms race will be paved that could endanger Israel and southeast Europe, he said during an interview with a German magazine. This is truly refreshing rhetoric coming from a French leader who gets it.

On a side note, it's official, I have ended my personal boycott of France and French goods. I know it may seem silly, and I have never called on others to engage in such a boycott, but I have personally avoided all things French over the past few years. I have even avoided traveling through France on my multiple trips to Europe in the last few years (with the exception of one layover at Charles de Gaulle airport on my way to Romania last year, and I avoided purchasing even a beverage). With Sarkozy in, a new wind is blowing and French wines, cheeses and Perrier are back in at the Gelman household. Thank goodness for that.