George Bush and the far right in Israel, have taken complex ME issues and boiled them down into simplistic solutions that aren't really solutions at all. If Iran were to be bombed in order to prevent them from getting a nuclear weapons capability, do they really belive that all their problems would be solved? As with the Iraq war, which was supposed to turn all ME dictatorships into American style democracies, the plan to neutralize Iran is fraught with unintended consequences.
Without a reasonable settlement to the Palestinian conflict, nothing will come of any attempts to protect Israel. Until they start dealing with their neighbors in a constructive way, they will be perpetually insecure and under the threat of attack.
On April 9, 2003, we won the battle against a tattered Iraq. But Iran, without firing a shot won the war for Iraq; a triumph for the Khomeini revolution, one of Shia's greatest moments since Saladin removed the Shia Fatimids in Cairo in 1171. The occupation of Iraq transferred control in Mesopotamia to Iraq?s 60% Shia majority, a event that turned Iran into an regional powerhouse. The British think tank, Chatham House concluded in August 2006: ?The greatest problem facing the U.S. is that Iran has superseded it as the most influential power in Iraq.?
The Arab Shia look to Iran for deliverance; leverage in Tehran?s arsenal in dealing with Arab oil Sheikhdoms. Egyptian President Mubarak declared recently that Shia's in Arab states were more loyal to Iran than to their own countries.
Washington needs today to deal with Iran as a major power in the world?s biggest oil region. GCC rulers in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and UAE are too feeble to challenge Iran. These men are non-representative dictators pre-occupied in outdoing each other on who owns the more ostentatious palace and who flies the bigger private Airbus or Boeing airplane.