Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Iran's election of extremist makes Bush's job easier

While to Americas enemies the above statement may be counter intuitive, it is none the less true. For the last few years Iran has remained the chief state sponsor of terrorism, while showing two fices to the world--the so called moderates, and the Ayatollahs pulling the strings. The moderate front gave the Euros cover to not confront Iran directly while they pursued endless negotiations. For both sides the negotiations were a cover for doing nothing. Iran made no meaningful concessions and the Euros made offers that were not accepted. Now the pretense of having a reasonable negotiating partner is no longer there to hide the Iranians sinister intent.

...

Mr. Ahmadinejad's win may well bolster the skepticism within the administration that the Europeans can persuade Iran to trade away its ability to produce its own nuclear fuel.

...

Whether the election results turns out to be the result of manipulation or a true measure of the Iranian mood, Mr. Ahmadinejad's victory consolidates the power of Tehran's most conservative members, closing the gap between the mullahs and a government that had tried to encourage dialogue with Washington's European allies, and, at least in its early years, to engineer greater social freedom.

Mr. Ahmadinejad's government will very shortly face difficult choices. The three European powers that have taken over the nuclear negotiations - Britain, France and Germany - have set a deadline for next month to make a full offer of financial incentives to Iran. Already the Iranian Foreign Ministry has said it will end its self-imposed moratorium on enriching uranium - one way to produce nuclear fuel for reactors or weapons - but it has made those threats before.

The so called moderate face of Iran has caused problems for the US going back to the Reagan administration. With the moderate face gone, perhaps the confrontation with Iran will have less self delusion on the US side. While it is unlikely that the Bush administration would have been deluded, but it is very likely that liberal Democrats would have wanted to go through the diplomatic dance instead of dealing with the problem. It is another reason why liberal Democrats should not be trusted with the national security of this country.