Iran has left the civilized world with just two options, said Alan Caruba in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Either we stand by, as the 'œcertifiably insane' new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, defies United Nations inspectors and builds a nuclear bomb. Or the U.S. and Israel launch a 'œmassive bombing campaign' to set back Iran's apocalyptic ambitions a decade or two. Make no mistake: The choice is that stark. Ahmadinejad is openly calling for the destruction of Israel—'œno ambiguity there'—and if he gets nuclear warheads, he'll mount them on missiles and fire them at Tel Aviv. He would probably also slip a nuke or two to al Qaida, said the Detroit News in an editorial. And then it would only be a matter of time before New York or Washington were incinerated. 'œThe Free World would never be able to rest easy again.'
If only it were that simple, said Ivo Daalder and Philip Gordon in The Washington Post. The Iranian nuclear program has been spread out among dozens of sites—specifically to limit the effectiveness of airstrikes. We could destroy a few critical facilities, but we'd be left guessing what we'd missed. 'œAnd are we prepared for what Iran could do in return?' Working through sympathetic Shiites, Tehran could 'œwreak havoc' in Iraq and Afghanistan, tipping both fledgling democracies into chaos. By blockading the Straits of Hormuz, Iran could shrink the world's oil supply by more than a third, sending oil past $100 a barrel and wrecking the global economy. And we could surely expect 'œretaliatory strikes' on U.S. soil from Iran's network of sponsored terrorist groups. The 'œdangers of an Iranian bomb are clear'—but so are the dangers of bombing Iran.
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