Cleaning out the closet.

I’m housecleaning, meaning all the unfinished snippets, incomplete thoughts, directionless ramblings are getting thrown out on display so I can be castigated and mercilessly pilloried. At the very least the clutter will subside.

This jewel comes to you from August of ’06. When the storm comes (and I have no doubt it will) there will be a litany of people wondering where we failed but it was not that people did not voice their concern about the regime in Iran, only that we lacked the will to address the issue and put off dealing with it until it was a situation we could no longer ignore:

What are we waiting for?

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last word on all key policy issues, said Monday that Iran was determined to press ahead with its nuclear program despite the Security Council deadline.

Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization deputy head Mohammad Saeedi said the same day that Iran would “provide Europe with an exceptional chance for an understanding and a return to the negotiating table,” but insisted an enrichment freeze was “no longer possible.”

I have no issue with the Iranian people. How long will it take for people to wake up and realize that everything Iran is doing is a delaying tactic designed to allow them time to accomplish their goal? I am not saying we should send troops into Iran but, you have a regime that refers to our country as ‘The Great Satan.’ Does anyone honestly believe the government of Iran wishes us well?

“Broad economic sanctions, comparable to the isolation of Iraq in the 1990s, are no longer feasible,” Jeffrey Schott, a senior fellow at the Institute for International Economics in Washington, told a congressional committee. “Many Americans would question harsh measures that might push oil above $100 a barrel and trigger a world recession.”

As far as U.N. alliances in calling for sanctions, Russia, France and Britain have oil companies with interests in Iran. China is Iran’s second-biggest oil export market, and Beijing is negotiating a $70 billion deal to develop a natural-gas field, in exchange for imports of Iranian natural gas, the newspaper said.

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Iran remains a serious foreign policy challenge for our country and the democratic world at large. For nearly a quarter century the United States and Iran have been without diplomatic relations. With the images of our Embassy hostages seared so deeply into our collective consciousness, it is easy to forget that our countries once enjoyed excellent relations and, only a generation ago, 200,000 Iranians were studying in the U.S. The United States is proud to be home to a large community of extremely talented Iranian immigrants who preserve a cultural and personal bridge to Iran where diplomatic contact long ago broke off.

It is not with the Iranian people, but with the Iranian regime’s threatening and often irresponsible behavior, that our concerns rest. We have repeatedly made clear our grave concerns regarding the Iranian government’s pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and long-range delivery systems; its sponsorship of terrorism including its direct support to Hizballah and Palestinian rejectionist groups; its appalling human rights and democracy record; its support for violent opposition to efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East; and its interference in the affairs of its neighbors.

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With Iran feeling emboldened after the performance of its client organization, Hizbullah, in its war with Israel, and with the US facing deepening problems in Iraq, the Iranian leadership may not believe it has a lot to worry about, analysts say.

“The Iranians are feeling pretty confident and full of themselves right now, so that has probably only enhanced their calculation that they can defy anything the Security Council throws at them,” says Patrick Lang, a Middle East specialist and former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst.

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Beyond the issue of sanctions, however, there are experts who fear that confrontation could in due course mean military action.

Mark Fitzpatrick, senior fellow in non-proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said: “This won’t drag on for years. There are two deadlines of sorts at the end of 2008. That is the earliest date by which some people think Iran could acquire a nuclear weapon. I think the date is more like 2010.

“And on November 2008, there is the US presidential election. President Bush will be inclined not to let this problem be passed on. There will be a growing mood in the US administration to take other action.”

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Iran 'attacks Romanian oil rig'

A Romanian oil company says one of its rigs stationed in the Gulf has come under fire from Iranian troops. A spokesman for the firm GSP said Iranian troops had seized the rig after firing from a nearby ship, and GSP lost contact with its 26 workers there.