Does Iran want to be bombed?

Victor Davis Hanson:

It's probably a good rule to do the opposite of anything the Iranian theocracy wants. Apparently, this government is now doing its darnedest to be bombed. So, for the time being, we should not grant them this wish.

In the last three years, the ranting adolescent theocrats in Tehran have alienated the United Nations' Security Council to the point of earning trade sanctions. That's a hard thing to do, given the U.N.'s bias toward the former third world and the way China and Russia value petroleum and trade above all else.

Prior to capturing last month 15 British Navy personnel, Iran had for years misled and embarrassed Britain, Germany and France, who all tried to negotiate a peaceful end to Iranian nuclear proliferation. And as a rule, these are European nations that will suffer almost any indignity to talk a problem away.

It is also nearly impossible to offend the Russian government on any matter of law - except squelching on debts. Still, Iran even accomplished that. Moscow is withdrawing from the country its nuclear technicians, who are critical to Tehran's efforts to obtain the bomb.

There is no need to mention Israel, which top Iranians have promised to wipe off the map - despite the fact that Israel is a nuclear power with a long record of military prowess. The Iranian leadership's efforts to promote a radical Persian Shiite Islam have terrified nearby Sunni Jordan, Egypt and the Gulf monarchies that now detest Iran as much as they do Israel.

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What should we make of the Iranians' behavior?

Namely that the country's leadership is in deep political trouble. The Iranian government is desperate to provoke the West to win back friends in the Islamic world, and to quell growing unrest at home. Subsidizing food and gas, providing billions for terrorists and building nukes all cost money at a time when the state-run Iranian economy is in shambles.

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... if the EU would cease all its trade with Iran, and if the West would divest entirely from the country - that is, boycott all companies that do any business with Tehran - the theocracy would face bankruptcy within months.

Even if further escalation were warranted, we could at some future date enforce a naval blockade of the Iranian coast that alone would determine what goods would be allowed into this outlaw regime.

But bomb Iran?

For now, we should try as hard to avoid it as these desperate clerics seem to want it.

The Ayatollahs' enablers in the EU are not going to do anything but keep enabling. While Iran might like a "surgical" strike for the purposes discussed by Hanson, any strike that we did should be far broader and longer destroying all aspects of Iran's ability to make war and conduct its oil business. That would take care of the EU business aspects too.