More Iran Round-ups

Sigmund Carl and Alfred have an urgent post and several good links on the subject.

“…responsible nations and leaders cannot fall back and claim ‘bluster’ every time they are called on uttering racist, bigoted and hateful remarks. When leaders and nations espouse views that are clearly out of the norm, when they use their own government controlled media to propagate hate and other outrages, they must be marginalized. There are consequences for inappropriate behavior, not the least of which is the forfeiture of a seat at the table of civilized nations. Just as Iran and other nations in the region would be outraged at media, school curriculum’s and ‘official’ religious doctrine that repudiated and excoriated their own religious and ethnic identities, so too must they understand they get no free pass if they choose to exercise their hatred and bigotry.”

Kobayashi Maru has been writing powerfully on Iran for several weeks and his post here is passionate;
Democratic wakefulness. I won’t belabor this one, but for the most part , the left needs to open their eyes to what time it is and what’s going on in the world. We are at war – and not of our own making. Joe Lieberman is the exception that proves the rule and – at least in how her mouth moves – to some extent Hillary Clinton is also. I don’t believe her and don’t believe she should be president, but at least she’s not lost in the same kind of fantasy land as Nancy Pelosi et al. The continual sense I get is that the left believes that our global problems are either (take your pick): our fault for having interests beyond our shores, our fault for being successful, our fault for electing George Bush, the result of going into Iraq to depose Saddam (our fault again), or not so challenging as to require anything more than a 1990’s brush-fire management and law enforcement approach. Wake up, people. It is 1938.

Michael Ledeen writes on the Road to Tehran and says Assad’s fall is the key:
In short, the Assad family’s grip on Syria is weakening, and this is welcome news indeed, both for the long-suffering Syrian people and for us. The Iranians are obviously desperate to keep Assad in power, and Hezbollah armed to the teeth. Should things go the other way, Iran would lose its principal ally in the war against us in Iraq. As is their wont, the Iranians have been paying others to do much of their dirtiest work, and they have awarded Assad tens of millions of dollars’ worth of oil, as well as cash subsidies, to cover the costs of recruiting, training and transporting young jihadis, who move from Syria into the Iraqi battle space (and, according to Jane’s, a serious publication, the Iranians have also sent some of their WMDs to Assad for safekeeping). That deadly flow has been considerably reduced in recent months, thanks to an extended campaign waged by U.S. and Iraqi forces in Anbar Province, and further along the Iraq/Syria border. The Syrians have accordingly sent radical Islamists into Lebanon, perhaps to link up with Hezbollah in a new jihad against Israel.

Jack Kelly’s blog has a definative round-up on Iran, and he promises that – due to the importance of this story – he’ll be blogging to keep us all abreast of the latest, so check back with him frequently.