The stage is thus set for a confrontation with the United States. Iran is confident it can win, and history hasn't given it much reason to fear otherwise. Student radicals like Ahmadinejad watched in 1980 as the United States did nothing but issue feeble diplomatic protests over the seizure of its embassy. They saw Ronald Reagan fulfill Ayatollah Khomeini's notorious dictum—"America cannot do a damned thing!"—when Lebanese suicide bombers recruited by Tehran killed 241 Marines near Beirut in 1982. Bill Clinton talked sanctions but then apologized for unspecified "past wrongs."Iran can wait us out, collect at least $200 Million a day from oil sales, bleed us with casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, continue work on nuclear weapons and hope that a new president in 2008, influenced by a growing anti-war movement will in this country, will turn tail and run as has been our practice.Even George W. Bush's war on terror, which initially worried the mullahs, has turned to their strategic advantage. Enemies on either side—the Baathists in Baghdad and the Taliban in Kabul—are now gone. The expulsion of Syria from Lebanon under U.S. pressure has left Iran as the major foreign influence in the country. Bush's advocacy of democracy has undermined Washington's traditional allies—and Iran's rivals—like Saudi Arabia and Egypt. "The Americans have their so-called Greater Middle East plan," Supreme Leader Ali Hoseini Khamenei said in a speech recently. "We, too, have our plan for the region."
We have a car dealer in Portland whose motto is, "If you don't see me today, I can't save you any money!" In the case of Iran, I'd say, "if you don't deal forcefully with the problem today, it's going to cost us a lot of money (and boys and girls lives)!"
