argus

Iran, folks. In the Anna Nicole/Shrillary/Obama blitz that is the media of late, the EU’s favorite rogue state seems to have moseyed it’s way to the newscycle back burner. Two pieces to, ah, refocus your attention:

1. Iraqi insurgents using Austrian rifles from Iran
2. Too late to halt Iran’s nuclear bomb, EU is told

(hattip to ye ol’ Drudge for both)

The headlines don’t do the articles justice, either. In the piece on the rifles, it turns out that the Austrian sale took place last year, with much protestation from us and the Brits for fears that — wait for it — the high-powered anti-personnel weapons would “find their way” to the hands of “insurgents” in Iraq. To quote the article,

Within 45 days of the first HS50 Steyr Mannlicher rifles arriving in Iran, an American officer in an armoured vehicle was shot dead by an Iraqi insurgent using the weapon.

It wouldn’t seem that there is really much grey area here. Next.

The EU paper article is a bit bleaker than us Yanks tend to think — “Too late to stop them? WTF-ever …where’d we store them MOABs, boys? Time to kick the tires!” But it’s single salient message is worth internalizing: even the EUnuchs don’t believe in the “diplomacy only” course they’ve insisted on with Iran. The highlights:
Good: “The problems with Iran will not be resolved through economic sanctions alone.”
Better: “In practice . . . the Iranians have pursued their programme at their own pace, the limiting factor being technical difficulties rather than resolutions by the UN or the International Atomic Energy Agency.”
Best: “The EU document is embarrassing for advocates of negotiations with Iran, since last year it was Mr. Solana and his staff [Ed: who’s office published this paper on Iran] who spearheaded talks with Tehran on behalf of both the EU and the permanent members of the UN Security Council.”

So. A quick recap:

• Iran’s unhinged leader has stated that he wants to annihilate the U.S. and Israel.
• Iran’s unhinged leader has been unapologetic in his statements about Iran’s right to pursue a nuclear (weapons) program.
• The EU has up to this point been in a tizzy to DO something about Iran, so long as it wasn’t anything mean or hurtful — e.g., talk only, and maybe some hand-holding if dinner goes well.
• The very EU diplomats who were part of the romantic get-togethers negotiations now acknowledge that negotiations with Iran about halting their nuclear program won’t amount to jack squat.
• The U.S. has been collecting more and more instances of Iranian influence in the terrorism in Iraq — up to and including the discovery of high-powered sniper rifles being used against us in Iraq that were shipped to Iran as recently as last year.

Seriously: why aren’t the bombers already in the air?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 at 12:12:02 am and is filed under Commentary, Political. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.