Of course Iran was able to stand up to the attack of Iraq with all of the US supplied weapons available---sustain unimaginable losses and yet keep up hostilities.

Phase One of the pre-war anti-war arguments: The "Invincible Sardaukar" argument.

Before the recent Iraq invasion, before Afghanistan, before the first Gulf War, we heard how the enemy was a dedicated, fanatical, unstoppable fighting force that would send our troops home in body bags by the thousands. I don't think anyone seriously makes this argument any more.

Given that we could probably go through Iran like a chainsaw through butter, let's move on to the next question: should we actually invade Iran?

I would say no. For starters, we don't have the resources right now.

Second, to the best of my knowledge, the threat of Iran is isolated in its nuclear program. I have not heard of biological or other "make it in a garage" programs, but anyone can correct me if I'm wrong. This means that Iran's danger to the outside world is actually easily pinpointed geographically. It's damn hard to hide a full-up nuclear program.

So personally, if worst comes to worst, I think a policy of highly precise air strikes to take out the nuclear systems would work. It worked on Iraq's first nuclear program, and Saddam had to recreate it secretly from scratch. Iran might have a lot more difficulty reconstructing it now that the local nuke ring has been broken up and asshats like France and Russia might be less likely to cheerfully build reactors for them.

I'm secretly hoping Israel does the dirty work again, but that might be too much to hope for.

Sure, the ROW would scream in outrage until their ears bled, just like they did when Israel took out Saddam's bomb factories. That's the price you pay for having to get the job done.

Hmmm. So if Bush finds a non-military way to deal with Iran, or North Korea for that matter, it's "appeasement." You know, once you realize that the basis of most leftist arguments is "anything that Bush does is wrong, no matter what it is" analysis becomes a lot easier.