Annotated Powerline, on Iran

Paul from Powerline advances the conservative case for war with Iran:

Last week, the Bush administration agreed to talk with Iran about Iraq. Iran has been arming Iraqi Shiite militia and some insurgent groups.

I've been following Iran news closely for the last couple months, and I have seen no indication that there is any proof of this. Note also that Pajamaline folks will typically say things like "Iran is doing x" when in reality there are some elements, perhaps not even elements connected to the government, within Iran who are doing x. "So let's bomb the mother f*ckers." The same conflation practices applied to the U.S. could result in sentences like "The United States is actively trying to trying to assassinate Hugo Chavez," based on some crazy statements by one Christofacist who does not hold any governmental position.

The administration's objectives will include bringing an end to that practice and, more broadly, ending sectarian violence by Iranian-supported militia. My sense is that such talks are a bad idea. Iran is involved in Iraq because it perceives an interest in supporting our enemies there.

This last sentence is accurate, but misleadingly phrased. Iran's alleged interest in supporting Shiite militia may or may not be related to them being the enemies of America, although that is the impression this sentence leaves. Furthermore, I doubt the Shiite militias consider themselves as enemies of America.

To talk Iran into changing course, we would have to offer it an incentive larger than the one that's pushing it to cause trouble now. The only such incentive I can imagine is backing away from our efforts to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

This man lacks imagination if this is the only incentive he can imagine.

But a nuclear Iran would have far more ability to cause mischief in the region than Iran has now. Our top priority, even ahead of curbing current Iranian mischief making in Iraq, must be to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power.

Well, at least he's clear about what he believes. But note Zwichenzug's post on this very subject, as well as this post about the new fatwa against nuclear weapons.