Here's a question for you: When the President of Iran states publicly that he'd be willing to lose 1/2 of Iran in order to destroy Israel,

What the left seems unwilling to accept is that there are no good options for dealing with the Iranian regime. Diplomacy has not worked

What we are faced with is a situation where MAD isn't going to work, because we are dealing with a regime that thinks it can hasten the arrival of the "hidden imam" via destruction, martyrdom, and chaos.

The US media presented only a snippet from the speech of Supreme Jurisprudent Ali Khamenei of Iran on Sunday, in which he threatened to damage oil supplies to the West if the US militarily attacked Iran. He did say that, but he also announced that Iran had no intention of striking first, had not attacked and would not attack another country, and that it has no nuclear weapons program and does not want a nuclear bomb. I didn't hear any of those statements reported on television

In other words, nothing anyone outside the White House thinks matters. We know Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, despite anything approaching certainty on the question. History will later vindicate us, regardless of how bad we F-up now. It's not our fault that Europeans are wusses. Sound familiar? The cap's coming off the glue, doctor's orders be damned...

Diplomacy won't work, because Iran isn't interested

2) The level of voiolence necessary to get their attention is unacceptable unless Iran initiates it

Soc. You saved me a little typing on this one

there be pages of the rascals,

Two new reports criticize the US's handling of Iran, just as the West gauges Iran's response to a proposal meant to rein in Tehran's nuclear ambitions. One report says the US war on terror has strengthened Tehran, the other slams America's poor intelligence on Iran.

The United States, with Coalition support, has eliminated two of Iran's regional rival governments -- the Taliban in Afghanistan in November 2001 and Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq in April 2003 -- but has failed to replace either with coherent and stable political structures.
...
Iran has moved to fill the regional void with an apparent ease that has disturbed both regional players and the United States and its European allies. Iran is one of the most significant and powerful states in the region and its influence spreads well beyond its critical location at the nexus of the Middle East, Turkey, the Caucasus, Central Asia and South Asia.
...
Of particular note is Iran's influence in Iraq. Chatham House argues that "the great problem facing the US is that Iran has superseded it as the most influential power in Iraq...
...
one author of the report puts the blame for Iran's ascension on the United States and its execution of the war on terror.

One of the authors of the Chatham House report, Dr Ali Ansari of the University of St Andrews, told BBC Radio Five Live: "We've seen really since 9/11 that the chief beneficiary of America's global war on terror in the Middle East has been the very country that it considers to be a major part or a founding member of the axis of evil. "And that basically tells us that there's an enormous incoherence in American approach to the Middle East. They simply haven't managed to work out a strategy and a policy that will work and will achieve results."

Iran is busily funding Sadr in Iraq, Hamas and Hizbollah in Gaza/Lebanon, and the Taliban in Afhganistan.

What "security guarantees" could we offer them that would make them back off of even one of those? What carrots do you think we could offer that they would find of interest?

I see that the last commenter didn't understand any of the words I wrote, specifically the part where I said that I didn't think force was a good answer.

shown a complete lack of interest in Western diplomatic efforts since that time

The bottom line here is, there's almost certainly going to be war between Iran and Israel: Iran sounds like they want it (witness their statements on the destruction of Israel).

The most depressing aspect of this to me is the Left's reaction to that. With Iraq, the call was for multi-lateralism and the UN. That's exactly what we are doing with Iran - multi-lateral diplomacy that involves the UN. And still, the Left carps.