"Wake Up Call" (Part 1)

Such is titled a West Wing episode in which President Bartlett and his staff struggle with how to respond to a crisis with Iran. In this fictional situation, a British commercial airliner is mistaken for a US spy plane and shot down in Iranian airspace. Despite the knowledge that it was unintentional, the British use fiery rhetoric to lambast Iran, and consider this an opportunity to potentially take out Iranian nuclear facilities. Within the West Wing, debate rages about how best to foster long-term change in Iran.

This is extremely relevant to the situation we find ourselves in today - where not Britain but Israel has been using fiery rhetoric. Ever since Israel's existance there have been tensions between the two countries, but recently these were heightened by an Israeli military exercise, which was widely interpreted as being practice for an attack on Iran. This was accompanied with warnings that if Iran does not halt its nuclear program, Israel will be "forced" to take it out pre-emptively. Those are fightin' words, especially in an area as volatile as the Middle East, and predictably Iran has responded with aggressive statements and military exercises of its own. President Ahmadinejad has assured the world that any strike against it will be responded to in kind. The likelihood of an Israeli strike is a matter of speculation, but the war hawks in Washington give cause for concern. On July 19 the Bush Administration offered a "freeze-for-freeze" deal to Iran, wherein they would freeze their enrichment program in exchange for a freeze in sanctions against them. The 2-week deadline for response is this Saturday, August 2, afterwhich Condeleeza Rice has warned of "punitive measures" - at this point looking like harsh sanctions, but the Administration has not ruled out military action.

[I wrote this on Monday, thinking that I would have time to finish it later in the day. But since the last few days have been busy I'm going to go ahead and post this anyway, and add a Part 2 later when I have time. This is an attempt to break my perfectionism - submitting an incomplete post! :) Keep reading for the rest... ]