The war that can be stopped? UPDATED

Niall Ferguson suggests Pre-emption is the key but wonders if the world has the nerve for it. He suggests diplomacy will not work with Iran. Since the president of Iran feels like he is on a mission to usher in a sort of messiah, Ferguson’s guess is probably right. Here, he forecasts what history will say:

The devastating nuclear exchange of August 2007 represented not only the failure of diplomacy, it marked the end of the oil age. Some even said it marked the twilight of the West. Certainly, that was one way of interpreting the subsequent spread of the conflict as Iraq’s Shi’ite population overran the remaining American bases in their country and the Chinese threatened to intervene on the side of Teheran.

Yet the historian is bound to ask whether or not the true significance of the 2007-2011 war was to vindicate the Bush administration’s original principle of pre-emption. For, if that principle had been adhered to in 2006, Iran’s nuclear bid might have been thwarted at minimal cost. And the Great Gulf War might never have happened.

Reliapundit says Russia and China are working together to derail any progress made with Iran by being cagey. If you scroll down two items from that one, you’ll see that Reliapundit is often prescient.

UPDATE: Bill Arkin says We’re ready to attack.