OTHER HOOVER IRAN CONTENT

Iran Looms As Nuclear Party Crasher
Missiles flare through the skies above Iran. U.S. and British warships stage all-hands-on-deck maneuvers in the Persian Gulf...

Walker's World: Which Iran is in charge?
Will the real Iranian government please stand up to be identified?...

Nuclear ban? Start with U.S.
Wednesday is the 63rd anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and an appropriate time to reflect upon the persistence of nuclear danger...

Israel, Iran and the Bomb
Israel and the entire Middle East are approaching a stark existential choice: a nuclear holocaust or a nuclear-free Middle East...

Where Art Thou, Hillary?
I think buyer’s remorse will soon set in among Democrats...

The real nuclear threat
We heard a lot recently about the nuclear threats posed by North Korea and Iran...

Back to the USSR
John McCain likes to compare himself to Theodore Roosevelt, Barry Goldwater, and Ronald Reagan...

What If Iraq Works?
There is a growing confidence among officers, diplomats, and politicians that a constitutional Iraq is going to make it...

Revisiting the “Axis of Evil” – Part I
As the debate on Iran rages in the United States, the hawks need to examine the 2003 Iraq War and its aftermath, pondering the wisdom of George Santayana – "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."...

A Summer of War and Politics
Why Do Europeans Love Obama?...

It’s America, Obama
What disturbed me about Barack Obama's Berlin speech were some reoccurring utopian assumptions about cause and effect — namely, that bad things happen almost as if by accident, and are to be addressed by faceless, universal forces of good will...

Obama the Sophisticate
It’s beginning to look as though Senator Barack Obama really is more popular than Senator John McCain abroad...

‘This Is the Moment’
Given the size of the audience in Berlin Thursday, the enthusiastic response, and the standard lines about how we-were-, -are-, and -will-be-friends boilerplate, one wonders whether all it took to win the Euro-hearts and minds was to have a charismatic, multiracial American spice up a standard George W. Bush speech about helping the world, addressing AIDs, more troops in Afghanistan, etc.?

Obama's Experience Doesn't Match Up
Heading off on his week-long, high-profile tour of seven countries, Barack Obama defined the first part of the trip's purpose by telling reporters, "I want to, obviously, talk to the commanders and get a sense, both in Afghanistan and in Baghdad of . . . what . . . their biggest concerns are."...

Abizaid: "Iran Is Not a Suicide State; Deterrence Will Work"
Monday evening at a meeting of the Pacific Council, retired General John Abizaid, the former commander of the US Central Command for Iraq and Afghanistan from 2003-2007, offered lots of wisdom and an impressive analysis of the Middle East...

The End of Humanity: Nukes, Nanotech, or God-Like Artificial Intelligences?
The Global Catastrophic Risks conference sponsored by the Future of Humanity Institute concluded on Sunday...

Our Many Messiahs
The more we size up the current energy crisis, the more it seems like we are waking up from a long coma...

A New Openness to Talks With That ‘Axis of Evil’
When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets her North Korean counterpart, Pak Ui-chun, in Singapore this week, it will be the first substantive high-level meeting between Washington and the North since Madeleine K. Albright visited North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-il, during the waning months of the Clinton administration...

Samir Kuntar and the last laugh
Israel has lived the past 60 years more intensively than any other country...

Re-Thinking the Iranian nuclear threat
WOULD IT be a great disaster if Iran had nuclear weapons?...

Philip Bobbitt: The presidents' brain
'Shall we break with convention," he says, "and have champagne?"...

An Uncomfortable Conversation about Nukes
Why are Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, William Perry, and Sam Nunn writing opinion pieces in the Wall Street Journal calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons?...

Summer Madness
So an exasperated Sen. Barbara Boxer screams that the farm-belt senators better support her regional selfishness in opposing California off-shore drilling against the national interest, in the same manner she went along with the ethanol boondoggle...

More Iraqi Ironies
There is by now only one constant in the entire sad Iraqi saga since the brilliant three-week victory of 2003, and the subsequent violent reconstruction that followed...

With no laurels to rest on, U.S. must regain can-do spirit
In the past 20 years, we were lectured constantly about "post-industrial" America...

The nuclear reaction
In a surprising move this week, the Bush administration announced William Burns, its third-highest-ranking diplomat, was going to Geneva to attend talks with Iranian envoy Saeed Jalilli this weekend...

Questions From the Past
Sometimes, like you, I start feeling down about the direction of our world today...

Will Washington Betray Anti-Regime Iranians?
As the United Nations mandate that legitimizes the presence of U.S forces in Iraq expires on December 31, 2008, a humanitarian and strategic disaster is coming into view...

Obama vs. McCain: Seven Areas of Agreement, and Six of Disagreement, on Nuclear Weapons
In a campaign that features back and forth on issues large and small, where Barack Obama and John McCain disagree on everything from taxes to offshore drilling to Social Security to Iraq, it is amazing how much agreement there is on nuclear weapons issues...

Decline and fallacy
American crises seem to produce two kinds of diagnosticians, those who want to scare their readers and those who want to reassure them...

Hagee's "Christians for Israel" Meet in DC, Seeking Conflict with Iran
You have probably heard of Pastor John Hagee...

Analysis: Iran runs risk in missile tests
Iran's bold move in test-firing nine missiles Wednesday could be desperation or bravado, but it is hard to avoid the conclusion that powerful figures in Tehran are spoiling for a radical confrontation with the United States...

Barack W. Bush?
Almost everyone is talking about Barack Obama’s flip-flops, as the Senate’s most liberal member steadily moves to the political center and disowns firebrands like Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Fr. Michael Pfleger...

Iran Raises Vanishing of 4 Citizens in Beirut as U.N. Issue
Iran, sharpening its image contest with Israel amid the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program, has resurrected questions about the fate of four of its citizens who disappeared in Beirut in 1982 while Israeli forces occupied the city...

What Reagan and Shultz Can Teach Us About Talking to Iran
In their column on National Review on June 24, 2008 called “10 Concerns about Barack Obama,” William Bennett and Seth Leibsohn, begin their list of attacks on Senator Obama by writing that “Barack Obama’s foreign policy is dangerous, naïve, and betrays a profound misreading of history.”...

Good and Bad Times
Obama said not a word last autumn about the Moveon.org slander of Gen. Petraeus when he was running hard left of Clinton and the Moveon.org crowd was essential to his candidacy...

LETTER TO EDITOR: Not another war
Arnaud de Borchgrave's column should be essential reading for everyone concerned about what is going on in the world ("U.S.-Israel moment of truth?" Commentary, Monday)...

[The Islamist-Leftist] Allied Menace
"Here are two brother countries, united like a single fist," said socialist Hugo Chávez during a visit to Tehran last November, celebrating his alliance with Islamist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad...

Forty Years After Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, US Tops World in Nuke Arsenal
This week marks the fortieth anniversary of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, when nuclear powers agreed to eventually eliminate their nuclear weapons, and non-nuclear states agreed not to seek to develop nuclear weapons capabilities...

The Campaign Heats Up
I watched the other night Shane and Hombre, and realized how much I missed Jack Palance and Richard Boone (both Stanford attendees at one time)...

Crusading is not the answer, but nor is pulling up the drawbridge
Next week, a bunch of political leaders will sit around a table at the G8 summit in Toyako, Japan, contemplating the state of the world...

A new approach on Iran?
The Bush Administration sought and Congress agreed to fund covert operations in Iran to destabilize the government there, according to a recent New Yorker article by Seymour Hersh...

Analysis: Report fans Iran attack fears
U.S. officials have denied claims that U.S. Special Forces are already operating across the Iraqi border in Iran, but Seymour Hersh's claim that senior U.S. generals are opposing American airstrikes against Iran reflects very real divisions in the Pentagon and the Bush administration...

Japan and the Future of Nuclear Disarmament
Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s entry in the visitors’ book at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum last month may not sound so astonishing or dramatic...

A Measure of Pride

Five years into the Iraq war, a better country is emerging. By Fouad Ajami.

Time for a “Diplomatic Surge”

Democracy may be turning a corner in Iraq, but it’s going to need a lot of help. What kind of help? Intense pressure on Iraq’s leaders. By Larry Diamond.

Unfounded Hopes

In a nuclear Iran, could we count on a democratic counterrevolution? Hardly.Why we may have to impose a naval blockade instead. By Shmuel Bar and Peter Berkowitz.

A Modest Proposal for Mideast Peace

Refugees, lost territory, artificial states . . . after we somehow fix these problems in spots like Kashmir and Eastern Europe, fixing them in Israel will be a cinch. By Victor Davis Hanson.

Goodbye to All That?

Washing our hands of the Middle East—a notion that’s as futile as it is appealing. By Thomas H. Henriksen.

How Israelis See the Future

The evolving consensus: their nation, though threatened, is sound. By Peter Berkowitz.

The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Turns 40 Today
Try an experiment today...

More Newsweek Rehash
Newsweek is running an old story of 2007 by Evan Thomas suggesting that the 300 was a sort of racist propaganda, and he thinks that it reflects the administration’s Manichean views that derive from ancient Greece/Persia faultlines...

It Doesn’t Always Compute
Two of the Three in the Axis of Evil — Korea and Iraq –seem no longer to be acquiring weapons of mass destruction...

Are Congressional Democrats Leading Us to War with Iran?
Until recently, the power struggle within the Bush administration over whether to attack Iran seemed to be going badly for the hawks...

Commentary: Suez and Hungary redux
Israel's message to its only ally, the United States, was quite clear...

THE STANLEY FOUNDATION: POLICY DIALOGUE BRIEF: US NUCLEAR WEAPONS POLICY AND ARMS CONTROL: 24/06/2008
On November 13, 2007, the Stanley Foundation convened a half-day discussion at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Washington, DC, with US administration officials, congressional staff, foreign diplomatic staff, and nongovernmental organization (NGO) policy experts, as one of a series of Stanley-organized discussions on US nuclear weapons policy...

Talking to enemy nations becomes a point of contention for McCain, Obama
A California voter named Stephen Sorta posed the question on YouTube, which was played at a Democratic debate, and Barack Obama swiftly answered, "I would."...

Level of Iranian Support for Ahmadinejad Uncertain
Looking ahead to Iran's presidential election in 2009, the big question is what President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's chances are of re-election...

Iraq in Review
Many commentators on Iraq had no strong ideas about the wisdom of removing Saddam Hussein, but often predicated their evolving views on the basis of whether we were perceived as winning or losing — and later made the necessary and often fluid adjustments...

Opposing view: Prepare to attack
In a declassified National Intelligence Estimate, Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities, the U.S. intelligence agencies announced last December, "We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program."...

Arms talks relaunch
IT may take a while for Kevin Rudd's plan to save the world, aka eliminating all nuclear weapons, to be fulfilled...

Start drilling!
The other day in southwestern Fresno County, a poor part of Central California, I talked with a number of folks at a rural gas station...

The toxic Texan's foreign policy doctrine will endure
American presidential elections are reliable occasions for political futurology...

We need to turn-back the nuclear Doomsday clock.
Kevin Rudd's decision to establish a Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Commission is a vital and timely initiative, for nuclear risks have been rising...

'Hotline to Iran' Aims to Head Off War
Members of Congress joined religious and civil society leaders today in an urgent call to stop the "drumbeat of war" with Iran and open up diplomatic talks to resolve growing tensions between Washington and Tehran...

Obama riding crest of cocky ignorance, media support
Now that Sen. Barack Obama has become the Democrats’ nominee for president of the United States, to the cheers of the media at home and abroad, he has written a letter to the secretary of defense, in a tone as if he is already president, addressing one of his subordinates...

Iran rewind
If you know nothing about Iranian history, I suggest you read Abbas Milani's piece "Pious Populist" about president Ahmadinejad in the Boston Review...

McCain Signals Desire to See Reduction in Nuclear Arms
Sen. John McCain called for a new nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia on Tuesday, staking out a position on nonproliferation somewhat at odds with the policies of the Bush administration...

Peace Train Bleeding heart liberal? Think again.
"The United States should lead a global effort at nuclear disarmament?"...

Pipes: Iran war definite if Obama wins
Neoconservative political analyst Daniel Pipes says if a Democratic nominee becomes president, Iran should 'watch out' for a US attack...

Where is the Wind and Solar?
Gas in central California is right at $4.50 a gallon...

Obama is Europe's dream candidate, but we may have to settle for McSame
To say that Europeans will welcome President George Bush on his farewell visit to Europe next week would invite a charge of verb-abuse...

Experts Affirm Bright Future for Indo-U.S. Ties
A distinguished panel of experts provided thoughtful, substantive insights at the India Community Center here into Indo-U.S. relations that suggested that while the future of relations between the world’s oldest democracy and the world’s largest democracy appears to be very bright, it is by no means a given, and continued efforts need to be sustained to ensure the two nations continue to nurture a harmonious and mutually beneficial relationship...

Rush's Guidance: Focus on Future
Now, we've talked a lot in the past couple days about what to do here...

Politics As I See It
One of my favorite columnists is Thomas Sowell, a Ph.D. economist at the Hoover Institute...

US Leaders Break Ground for Peace Institute
American political leaders gathered in Washington Thursday for the ceremonial groundbreaking of a building for a nonpartisan group helping to resolve international conflict and promote peace...

Rudyard Griffiths: A Toronto audience flips for John McCain (and flops on Barack Obama)
Last week in Toronto, Samantha Power, the Pulitzer Prize winning author and former adviser to Barack Obama, was uncharacteristically downbeat...

New Opportunities for Nonproliferation
The 40th anniversary of the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and the treaty’s looming 2010 review conference offer serious opportunities to think anew about the challenges and the opportunities in the critical field of nuclear nonproliferation...

Obama and McCain
Now that the two parties have finally selected their presidential candidates, it is time for a sober-- if not grim-- assessment of where we are...

Obama vs. McCain on the Middle East
How do the two leading candidates for president of the United States differ in their approach to Israel and related topics?...

The Middle East with Daniel Pipes: Chapter 3 of 5
What to do with Iran — or more specifically, an Iran with nuclear weapons?

Diplomacy thriving, but without U.S.
Just this spring, a number of diplomatic initiatives and conflict-settlement discussions are taking place without the United States, raising questions about the reach and strength of American global power...

The Tracks of His Record
It is amazing how seriously the media are taking Senator Barack Obama’s latest statement about the latest racist rant from the pulpit of the church he has attended for 20 years...

Iranians at Stanford face hurdles
Mahdiyar Noorbala’s acceptance letter to Stanford’s highly competitive physics doctoral program was only the first step in an arduous journey from Iran to California...

America's oil crisis demands a leader like Churchill
Through the 1930s, Winston Churchill was a has-been. He was old; he had been in Britain's Parliament for better than 25 years...

Iran, Venezuela in joint bank venture
Iran and Venezuela are teaming up to launch a development bank, further cementing the countries' political alliance...

The Quilliam Foundation
The launch in London of the Quilliam Foundation, described as "Britain's first Muslim counter-extremism think tank", has aroused very mixed reactions - from praise and admiration to speculation, suspicion and vilification...

Media missteps
The mainstream media has been taking quite a few hits lately...

The Talking Cure?
In their litany of American presidents who met with hostile dictators, supporters of Barack Obama cite John F. Kennedy and his meeting with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna in 1961...

Debate this: GOP keeps us safe
Next Monday, the inaugural Munk Debate takes place at Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum on the issue: "Be it resolved that the world is a safer place with a Republican in the White House."...

Appeasement and Its Discontents
Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along...

The Rise in the Price of Oil
The run-up in the world price of oil during the past several years, and especially the rapid climb during the last few weeks to over $120 per barrel, has fueled predictions that the price will reach $200 a barrel in the rather near future...

Israel at 60: World's worst neighbourhood
Two religiously identified new states emerged from the shards of the British empire in the aftermath of the Second World War...

The Democratic Recession
There are two important recessions going on in the world today...

A Treaty to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Although few people are aware of it, there has been considerable progress over the past decade toward a treaty to abolish nuclear weapons...

Why oil matters in Iraq
The White House this week warned Congress that any cuts in aid for Iraq could prolong the war...

Empowering our enemy
The gloomy election-year refrain is that America is mired in Iraq, took its eye off Afghanistan, empowered Iran, and is losing the war on terror...

Can Bush attack again?
At a time of ongoing talks between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), of diplomatic efforts by a group of UN Security Council members to persuade Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment activities, and coordination between Washington and Tehran over Iraq to the extent of forming joint security committees, a dangerous current is pushing in the polar opposite direction and gaining momentum...

Divided nations to meet on ailing atom control pact
More than 180 nations gather on Monday to seek elusive common ground on how to save the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...

Don’t Let Up
Whether or not Iran has really suspended its military nuclear program, pressure on Tehran must continue. By Michael McFaul and Abbas Milani.

Shield of Falsehoods
“There is no military solution . . . we haven’t tried diplomacy. . . .” Strategies rise and fall, but untruths about the Iraq war refuse to die. By Victor Davis Hanson.

Not Appeasement
As the world sees it, America tends to dash off to war without moral authority. How we could change that view. By Shelby Steele.

The Sarkozy Revolution?

He may be the most pro-American French leader since the Marquis de Lafayette, but the new president is still . . . French. By Deborah Hanagan.

Abizaid addresses Middle East problems
Retired General John Abizaid spoke about "Diplomacy, the Military, and the Future of the Middle East" at 7 p.m. April 9 in the Student Union Building Jordan Ballroom...

HOW ABOUT WE DON'T THREATEN TO NUKE IRAN?
In his column today, Charles Krauthammer laments the fact that Iran is moving ahead with its nuclear program...

Iran's 160,000 U.S. hostages
U.S. ground forces in Iraq are held hostage to long and vulnerable supply lines up from Kuwait and the Gulf, all controlled by Shiite militias strongly sympathetic to the Islamic republic in neighboring Iran...

Shultz on Nukes — Then & Now: Chapter 4 of 5
Can the world live with a nuclear Iran, or must that nation be stopped from attaining nuclear weapons at all costs....

Where We Stand on Iraq and the Election
I saw a startling statistic that said that 24% of all stories in the New York Times until last year were devoted to Iraq, and this year, 3% were....

No Surrender
Wars have never been easy to defend....

The Iranian Threat Won't Just Go Away
Human beings tend, when faced with equally unacceptable alternatives, to rationalize inaction...

A look inside Iran
In a conversation recorded at the Commownealth Club of California, historian Abbas Milani and journalist Barbara Slavin discuss the politics, history and culture of Iran and how they might inform the United States' relationship with the Middle Eastern country...

Iran: Dissidents See Dark Legacy Of 'Glorious Revolution'
Thousands of Iranians have turned out for rallies to mark the day 29 years ago when the U.S.-backed shah of Iran was toppled...

Iranian-Americans Seek Least-Hawkish Candidate
Jaded toward their government back home and cynical of the current U.S. administration and the Republicans they historically supported, a new generation of Iranian-Americans appears to be looking to Barack Obama to bring about change, especially with regards to U.S. foreign policy toward Iran...

Dial down the hostility toward Iran
Will the U.S. enter a new war even before U.S. troops have withdrawn from Iraq?

Norman Podhoretz on World War IV: Chapter 4 of 5
Post-9/11 America has split into two camps, according to Podhoretz...

Norman Podhoretz on World War IV: Chapter 5 of 5
Can we live with a nuclear Iran?

Well-Spoken Dictators
Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wasn't the first tyrant to speak at Columbia. Arnold Beichman remembers when Hitler's ambassador showed up in 1933.

Dispatches from the Front
Victor Davis Hanson visits Iraq.

Economic Strategy Is Paying Off
A call for a “surge” in jobs and prosperity in Iraq, whose rising economy has gone unheralded. By John B. Taylor.

If Iraq Fell
Withdrawing from Iraq wouldn’t produce a happy ending—not for America, not for the world. By Josef Joffe.

The United States and Iran: Troubled Times
On January 6, 2008, the U.S. Navy reported that five Iranian fast boats confronted three of its vessels in the Persian Gulf...

Clash of Civilizations? No, a Clash With Iran
In 1993 the Harvard political scientist Samuel P. Huntington wrote an article in Foreign Affairs titled "The Clash of Civilizations?"

Iraq Redux: The Consequences of a U.S. Attack on Iran
Four years after its war of choice on Iraq, the White House is once again planning an attack on a Muslim nation...

The Iran Factor, the Sunni States, and the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict
When George H. W. Bush was contemplating the removal of Saddam Hussein following the Persian Gulf War of 1991, the Saudis and Egyptians advised him not to do so. It could lead to civil war in Iraq, they argued, which would weaken the country as a bulwark against Iranian expansion in the region. Coupled with intelligence reports predicting the overthrow of Saddam by humiliated military men, the administration decided to follow its allies’ advice. Saddam was spared, Bush lost his bid for reelection, and the United States under Bill Clinton maintained a policy termed “dual containment” – degrading Iraq’s military capabilities through sanctions and air strikes while keeping Iran in the disfavored category of state sponsors of terrorism.

Victor Davis Hanson on War and History: Chapter 4 of 5
VDH discusses a nuclear Iran...

All Mixed Up Over Iran
Last week's U.S. National Intelligence Estimate states, with "high confidence," that Iran quit trying to get a nuclear bomb in late 2003...

Are We Doing the Best We Can with What We Know?
A recent National Intelligence Estimate claims that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003...

War Games
Since his surprise election in 2005, Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has widely been seen in the west as a dangerous demagogue with an alarming anti-Semitic streak, a man determined to take his country into a bruising showdown with the US...

World war four is off: time to bargain with Iran?
For investors, world war one was a bolt from the blue – a crisis almost wholly unanticipated by stock markets until the first week of July 1914...

Iraniana
I have written too much about why it is a bad idea to bomb Iran now, but there remain nagging questions about the latest intelligence disclosures about Iran as the airways remain full of all sorts of crazy opinions...

Time for smart power
Why did President Bush raise the specter of World War III on Oct. 3 when he had known for at least six months what the gist of the National Intelligence Estimate would say?

(Some) Good News on Iran
The newly released consensus by US intelligence agencies that Iran likely halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 is good news...

Revisionism and The Iranian Non-Bomb
The latest news from Iran about the supposed abandonment in 2003 of the effort to produce a Bomb — if even remotely accurate — presents somewhat of a dilemma for liberal Democrats...

Can Iran’s Opposition Finally Bring Democracy?
A silent majority has grown against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran, but can it shake the lock that the president and the clerics have on the state’s machinery?

Understanding Ahmadinejad
One key is not to under-estimate him...

Iran: No Smoking Gun but Strong Evidence
The accusations come almost every day from U.S. officials: Iran is seeking a nuclear weapon...

Obama Is Right on Iran
After a recent Democratic presidential debate, Barack Obama proclaimed that were he to become president, he would talk directly even to America's worst enemies...

What if the U.S. Bombed Iran?
How would Iran react if the United States attacked?

What does 'no war in Iran' mean?
The latest obsession of protesters at Stanford — or whatever we’re supposed to call the student group that roams around campus from demonstration to demonstration — is stopping the impending “war in Iran..."

Ahmadinejad and Iran's Nuclear Program
Michael McFaul and Abbas Milani discuss Ahmadinejad and Iran's Nuclear Program...

Reducing Tensions Over Iran?
President George W. Bush has warned that "World War III" could be the consequence of Iran gaining the know-how to make nuclear weapons...

Iran's Power Play: Who Is Really in Charge?
Since his election to office in 2005, Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has garnered much criticism for his brash anti-Semitic comments and questionable nuclear ambitions...

Risk of nuclear attack grows greater every day
It's almost axiomatic that the less high officials want to discuss a matter, the more important it is...

Bombing Iran Wouldn’t Be Just That
The jockeying by Republican presidential candidates to demonstrate toughness on Iran was taken to a new level on Thursday when former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts announced that he would advocate a naval blockade or “bombardment of some kind” if Iran does not yield to diplomatic pressure to give up its nuclear program...

Who’s Afraid of an Iranian Bomb?
At first glance, it would seem a straightforward thing to stop a relatively weak but volatile Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb...

Words of warning
Pundits are waving the yellow flag after President Bush told reporters last week that “if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing [Iran] from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon..."

Tehran brushes off U.S. threats
Despite heated new rhetoric from the Bush administration and the threat of additional sanctions, Iran made clear Monday that it had no intention of stopping its nuclear research program...

Iran: Rhetoric And Reality
There’s been an increase in combative rhetoric from the Bush Administration regarding Iran over the past week or so...

US needs more jaw and less war with Iran: analysts
The United States must stop "posturing" and start negotiating if it wants to avert President George W. Bush's "World War III" scenario of a nuclear-armed Iran, Middle East experts say...

One strike, Iran could be out
Of all the columns I've written for this newspaper over the last couple of years, none has elicited a more heated response than the one published in January 2006 about the Great War of 2007...

In Israel's strike on Syria, a message on Iran
It's almost axiomatic that the less high officials want to discuss a matter, the more important it is...

Nuclear-Armed Iran Risks World War, Bush Says
President Bush issued a stark warning on Iran on Wednesday, suggesting that if the country obtained nuclear arms, it could lead to “World War III..."

Bush's War Rhetoric Reveals the Anxiety That Iran Commands
When President Bush this week raised the specter of World War III if Iran manages to build nuclear weapons, he not only roiled the diplomatic world, he also underscored how much Iran has come to shadow the political dialogue both here in Washington and on the presidential campaign trail...

Signs of Hope
Violence is taking its toll on America’s enemies, too—and the final outcome in Iraq, Iran, and Palestine may still be better than anyone now expects. By Victor Davis Hanson.

Officials deny claims State Department not doing enough in Iraq
State Department leaders insist their agency is handling a fair share of reconstruction work in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite criticism from military officials that too few civilian experts have volunteered for posts in combat zones...

Bush says nuclear Iran might raise risk of 'World War III'
President Bush warned Wednesday that a nuclear-armed Iran might raise the risk of "World War III..."

Iran war cheerleading is terrifying
Cheerleading for Iran war has increased recently and, unlike Iraq, this war could impact students more directly...

How Iran Could Help End the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
In invading Iraq, the U.S. unintentionally threw open the door to the expansion of Iranian influence in the region...

Diplomacy Better Than War With Iran
Few prospects are more disturbing than an Iran armed with nuclear weapons, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent visit to New York did nothing to allay our concerns, despite his insistence that his country is interested in nuclear power only for electrical generation...

Nervous Gulf Hears Calmer Tones on Iran
As the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East was leaving the Al-Jazeera television studios after an interview, one of the station managers shook his hand and joked: "Sir, you just made apartment prices jump in Dubai..."

Iran: As Tensions Rise, So Does Rhetoric
To any reader of the English-language blogosphere, September appeared destined to be the month of the Iran war media blitz...

U.S.'s own rhetoric toward Iran could use taming
One of the most unfortunate and unhelpful aspects of the United States' approach to foreign policy dilemmas is our tendency to demonize those who oppose our interests or our views....

Reader View: Nuclear Iran is Serious Threat
The Eagle's editorial regarding Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's appearance at Columbia University started off reasonably enough but then took a dangerous turn ("Speak: Don't be afraid of dialogue with Iran," Sept. 25 Opinion)...

Give Iran the bomb? Reading Iran's apologists
Two Security Council resolutions later, and suffering the first effects of tightening economic restrictions, Iran remains a problem child...

Beware Kyl-Lieberman Pro-Iran-War Amendment
They're trying to get us psychologically primed for bombing Iran...

Ahmadinejad Gets Rebuke, Creates Political Theater
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a rambling presentation to a packed hall at Columbia University, asserted that there are no homosexuals in Iran, reiterated that his country isn't seeking nuclear weapons and said the Holocaust may have occurred, but the subject requires more research...

War, then and now
I’ve been watching the Ken Burns’ film each night, and generally think, as a sociological exploration of race, class, and gender issues during wartime, it is excellent...

Iran's President Takes The Podium At The U.N.
Thousands protested outside the United Nations on Tuesday, while inside the leaders of the world had their say...

A risky proposition on Iran
John Abizaid, a retired Army general, says "there are ways" the world could "live with a nuclear Iran..."

Secret US air force team to perfect plan for Iran strike
The United States Air Force has set up a highly confidential strategic planning group tasked with “fighting the next war” as tensions rise with Iran...

War with Iran would entail grave risks
The rumor mill is spinning over a possible war with Iran...

The Legacy Of War
The neoconservative movement is in its 11th hour...

Al-Qaida on the run?
Osama Bin Laden “is a man on the run, from a cave, who’s virtually impotent other than the tapes” he releases from time to time...

The World Can Live With a Nuclear Iran
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad looks and sounds as if he is in a panic — and the Iranian president, on tour in New York this week, has very good reason to be...

Don't be afraid of dialogue with Iran
Dial down the heated war of words on Iran...

Victor Davis Hanson on the Columbia University invitation to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Professor Hanson, thanks for making a quick stop by...

Such a Strange Place, Academia
It is likely (a) that Ahmadinejad was one of the terrorists who took American hostages in 1979, and so helped to start the quarter-century rise of radical Islamic jihadism that blew up on September 11; and (b) that he wants to visit September 11 precisely for the purpose of boasting when back home “I am going there, because I can,” the subtext, if not the overt message, cynically to commemorate what we deserved...

Iranians in U.S. face a choice -- to speak out, or not
USC professor Muhammad Sahimi knew he risked interrogation or arrest while visiting Iran because of his outspokenness about the need for political reform in his homeland...

Addressing the Address
Everyone expected a September do-or-die showdown over our presence in Iraq; but the good news from the surge and the absolutely insane, suicidal Democratic attacks against the best in our military have given the president another six months...

So Is the U.S. Going to Bomb Iran?
It was interesting that both Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker took the opportunity during their congressional testimony Monday to bash Iran...

Opinions Vary on Rumors of U.S. Attack on Iran
The past couple of weeks have seen an increase in the rumors of possible U.S. military action against Iran...

Iran's Leadership Changes May Alter Policy
Over the past week, there have been two key changes in the leadership of the Iranian government...

Iraq with an N? Anatomy of a Rumor That Has to be Taken Seriously
I don't see any point to contributing to a cycle of useless panic, but if Victor Davis Hanson is worried about war with Teheran, I'm worried and then some...

Don’t Bomb, Bomb Iran
There’s been ever more talk on Iran...

Rights & Wrongs: Esfandiari Released, Taylor Trial and More
Iranian authorities released Iranian-American scholar Haleh Esfandiari Aug. 21 after securing more than $300,000 in bail, ending her 100 days in solitary confinement...

Hannity’s Warmongering Foiled
A guest on last night’s (8/23/07) Hannity & Colmes put the kibosh on Sean Hannity’s armchair warmongering with Iran...

Tough Talk to Tehran
There are many reasons to be frustrated with Iran’s double talk about its nuclear program, its backing of Hezbollah in Lebanon and possibly arming Shiite militias in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan...

Jailed Academic in Iran Is Released on Bail
An Iranian-American academic jailed for more than 100 days on suspicion of promoting a “velvet revolution” in the Islamic Republic was released on hefty bail on Tuesday, looking tired and much thinner from her ordeal but pronouncing herself well...

As U.S. Steps Up Pressure on Iran, Aftereffects Worry Allies
America's allies are increasingly concerned about the Bush administration's plans to unilaterally escalate pressure on Iran, fearing that an evolving strategy may also set in motion a process that could lead to military action if Iran does not back down, according to diplomats and officials of foreign countries...

In the Debate Over Iran, More Calls for a Tougher U.S. Stance
Fourteen months after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice offered to talk to Iran, the failure of carrot-and-stick diplomacy to block Tehran's nuclear and regional ambitions is producing a new drumbeat for bolder action, including the possible use of force...

A Regional Iran Approach
The United States let loose a one-two diplomatic punch aimed both at undercutting Iranian power and rallying Arab financial and diplomatic assistance for Iraq when President Bush dispatched Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to the Middle East...

Confession Time in Iran
Haleh Esfandiari of the Woodrow Wilson Center describes herself as a link in a chain of civil society groups intended to “shake the system” in Iran...

First Iranian Reference Libraries
Libraries have been always regarded as one of the institutions that play a very significant role in advancing literacy and education in every society...

Iran gas more flammable?
Here's a gag that used to circulate in the days of the Soviet Union and communist central economic "planning..."

What Should We Do About The Nuclear Threat Of Iran?
One of the most important questions at this point in history is what to do about Iran...

Good Bad News from Iran
Good news from Iran...

Don't punt on Iran
During the Cold War, Ronald Reagan criticized the policy of "containment" toward the Soviet Union on the grounds that it was defensive and reactive and not designed to win the superpower competition...

Iran Cracks Down on Dissent
Iran is in the throes of one of its most ferocious crackdowns on dissent in years, with the government focusing on labor leaders, universities, the press, women’s rights advocates, a former nuclear negotiator and Iranian-Americans, three of whom have been in prison for more than six weeks...

Bargaining with Tehran
The prospect of U.S. military action against Iran is making headlines -- again...

New questions on Bush foreign policy
In early May, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her counterparts from Iran and other Mideast powers gathered at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh, setting the table for a May 28 meeting between the U.S. and Iranian envoys to Iraq...

300: The Sequel
The Battle of Thermopylae is long over, but it still has a great deal to tell us about friction between Persia and the West. By Victor Davis Hanson.

The Weakest Link
Ahmadinejad proved that he, not Britannia, rules the waves. By Niall Ferguson.

Hard Hearts
The most contested "hearts and minds" of the Iraq war may belong to Americans. By Victor Davis Hanson.

The view from Tehran
Imagine this scenario for a moment...

The faith that dare not speak its name
Amid the apologetics and invective over Islam, Paul Berman's portrait of the Muslim academic Tariq Ramadan in the June 4 New Republic stands out as a thoughtful critique...

Making Sense of Iran: From the Inside Out
After fifteen Royal Navy sailors were captured at gunpoint for allegedly entering Iranian waters, the British government struggled to analyze Iran’s opaque power structures to determine who, exactly, would decide the fate of the sailors...

Former U.S. defense chief: Israel must not attack Iran
Former U.S. defense secretary William Perry yesterday said it would be a mistake for Israel to attack Iran...

Will U.S.-Iran Talks on Iraq Lead to Other Topics?
Abbas Milani, director of the Iranian Studies program at Stanford University, assesses Monday's bilateral talks in Baghdad between the United States and Iran, the first such talks in almost thirty years...

Iran 'accused of attacks in Iraq to bolster US strategy'
The Bush administration may be highlighting accusations that the Iranian government is behind attacks in Iraq in order to strengthen its hand in preparing for military strikes on Iran, according to a leading British think-tank...

Is Sky Falling on America?
The suicide-murders and roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan sicken Americans...

National Security Forum on Biological and Chemical Weapons
Throughout the cold war the world's national security leadership was preoccupied with the threat of a nuclear holocaust and worked to reduce nuclear danger.At the same time, largely unnoticed, more and more nations were acquiring the ability to produce biological and chemical weapons (BCWs), and many proceeded to do so.

Bush doesn't want detente. He wants to attack Iran
In the next few days an unprecedented meeting between US and Iranian officials is expected to take place in Baghdad; both sides have insisted that discussions are limited to Iraq...

From Slow Simmer to Rolling Boil?
In his article in National Review Online, "Al-Quedism Again," Victor Davis Hanson presents the larger picture of the threat we face from the whole of radical Islamism, as opposed to the single sect of al-Queda.

Dealing with a Nuclear Iran
Lost in the debate about how to prevent Iran from crossing the nuclear threshold is the fact that we lack the ability to prevent it...

A Softer, Gentler Era of U.S., Iran Relations?
Tehran's high-level presence at the meeting this week in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt to discuss Iraq's security boosts the chances for eventual negotiations between Tehran and Washington over their long-running disputes, say analysts here and in Iran...

It's the Oil, Stupid
It is usually silly to offer a single solution to complex problems. But it's hard not to when looking at the serial savagery in Iran and the Arab world...

Imus, Iran, and Illegal Aliens
Who is worse—the racist bully or the racist buffoon?

Courting the British Accent
Allegedly during the 1930s, The Times cover properly synthesized Britons’ idea of themselves in relation to Europe: “Dense fog over English Channel. Continent isolated..."

Missing Iranian Underscores Shadowy Skirmishes
A former Iranian deputy defense minister and founding member of Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps disappeared while on a personal visit to Istanbul nearly four months ago...

Europe's shape must not be dictated by unelected newspaper proprietors
A new treaty and a fresh understanding of its relationship to the rest of the world will render the EU fit for purpose again...

Please Bomb Me!
It's probably a good rule to do the opposite of anything the Iranian theocracy wants...

Dealing with A Nuclear Iran
Some timely changes will help us cope with the unknown.

Iraniana
One can make all sorts of clever arguments—indeed the Brits have, from blaming us to blaming their own—about why this crisis was someone else’s fault, due to a misunderstanding, due to media exaggeration, due to an accident...

Iran exposes Britain's weakness
Blair's timid response to his soldiers' abduction shows how weak-willed the once-imperial power has become...

Houses of Straw
The EU’s delusions about the sufficiency of “soft” power are embarrassingly revealed...

Iran and its enablers
Taking its behind-the-scenes diplomacy public, Britain has stepped up its pressure on Iran to release 15 sailors and marines taken hostage last week, and it's time for the rest of the international community to follow suit...

Faced with Iranian blackmail, Europe must show real solidarity
Last week, while the European Union celebrated 50 years of peace, freedom and solidarity, 15 Europeans were kidnapped from Iraqi territorial waters by Iranian Revolutionary Guards...

UN sanctions seen hurting Iran despite oil wealth
Years of US imposed sanctions forced Iranian industry to be more self-reliant but mounting pressure is deterring even Iranians from making long-term investments...

Ramping up on Iran
In the words of Henry Kissinger: "There are all kinds of tactical discussions about how to deal with Iran.... But there are a number of fundamental principles to keep in mind...

Teetering In Tehran
Russia says the launch of Iran's nuclear power plant will be delayed because Tehran is behind in making construction payments...

'World must act to stop Ahmadinejad'
Iran could achieve nuclear weapons capability in one to two years, and the world must act collectively to stop Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's "sick boast" that he will wipe out Israel, Dr. Victor Davis Hanson, nationally syndicated columnist and policy adviser to US President George W. Bush, told The Jerusalem Post...

Condi's rock'n'roll approach has been and gone. Let's try Benita's slow waltz
In Egypt the US has retreated from its push for democracy in the Arab world. Europe should step into the breach...

Opposing view: Don't negotiate with pariahs
America should attend regional talks that may include Syria and Iran, in support of stabilizing the democracy in Iraq...

Casting the First Stone
A new round of Middle East hysteria has broken out in Washington...

Tapping Ahmadinejad's Egg
We all know the Iranian M.O. - nuclear proliferation, Holocaust denial, threats to wipe out Israel, vicious anti-Western rhetoric, lavish sponsorship of terrorists at work attacking Israel and destabilizing Lebanon...

What to Do About Iran
Here's the British writer Timothy Garton Ash, who wrote so wonderfully about the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, on Iran...

We must stop Bush bombing Iran, and stop Iran getting the bomb
We should not bomb Iran to prevent Iran getting the bomb...

Politics and Governance in a Changing Iran

Mixin' it up
Does President Bush really want to start a fight with Iran or Syria?

Taking Iran Down a Notch
The battlefield, so far, remains confined to Iraq...

Sanctions put new pressure on Iran
The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Saturday to impose sanctions on Iran aimed at slowing its nuclear program, but stopped short of allowing military action to enforce the sanctions...

U.S. shouldn't talk to weak Iranian leader
The Iraq Study Group, prominent U.S. senators and realist diplomats all want America to hold formal talks with the government of Iran...

Iran vote rattles leader's authority
When Iranians flocked to the polls on Monday to vote in local elections, Iran's official press agency quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cheering the high turnout...

A Reagan Strategy for Iran and Syria
The Iraq Study Group's recommendation that the Bush administration drop its preconditions and negotiate with Syria and Iran has been praised as a "no-brainer" -- and condemned as an improper effort to reward rogue regimes...

On Talking Back To Madmen
Among the excellent commentary exploring the meaning of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's genocidal reflections over the past week are two column that should be noted in addition to the items we posted over the week...

Florida Senator Meets With President Of Syria
President Bush says he won't be rushed...

Getting at the truth
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the egregious president of Iran, is hosting a conference this week on whether the Holocaust really happened...

From Khomeini to Ahmadinejad
Matthias Küntzel on Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam by Mark Bowden.

Baker-Hamilton's fine print: Stay in Iraq
'Persuasion involves both incentives and penalties," Henry Kissinger once remarked...

Iran's Fragile Fault Lines
Sanam Vakil on Answering Only to God: Faith and Freedom in Twenty-First-Century Iran by Geneive Abdo and Jonathan Lyons

Defusing Iran’s Bomb
How to make Tehran pay for its nuclear ambition

How Jew- Friendly Persia Became Anti-Semitic Iran
Abdol Hossein Sardari didn’t look like a hero...

The Baker group enters the debate
Talk about an anticlimax...

Observers Debate Iran's Influence in Iraq
Iran's influence in Iraq has led some American observers to criticize the Iranian government as meddling in Iraqi affairs...

We Refuse to Understand the Enemy, and Seal Our Fate
How about this letter that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sent to the American people?

Midnight in Tehran
Hoover media fellow Robert Morton argues that the new regime in Iran is every bit as oppressive as its predecessor.

Arsenal of Poison
The Tocqueville-quoting president of Iran, Mohammed Khatami, has impressed the West as a moderate—while at the same time amassing an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. By Hoover fellow Arnold Beichman.

Iran 'regime' change: It's stronger
No credible Iran analysis can contradict the assessment of Abbas Milani, director of the Iran Democracy Project at the Hoover Institution, that America missed a major opportunity when former President Mohammad Khatami's democratic reform program failed several years ago...

Iran summit idea could assist U.S., analysts say
Perhaps seeking to assert itself even more prominently in the affairs of its Arab neighbor, Iran on Monday reportedly invited the leaders of Iraq and Syria to talks in Tehran this weekend aimed at curbing the violence in Iraq -- an invitation, analysts say, that could be turn out to be in America's interest...

Hopes High for WTO Deal at APEC Summit
President Vladimir Putin is widely expected to secure the United States' long-awaited agreement on Russia's World Trade Organization bid at a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in Vietnam this weekend, a step that could ease bilateral ties and prompt Moscow to drop its opposition to tough sanctions on Iran...

Stalemate in Tehran
Iranian reformers and religious hard-liners are locked in a bitter political struggle. An assessment by Iran watcher Daniel Brumberg.

A World of Many Cold Wars*
One cold war between nuclear protagonists was scary enough. A world of multiple nuclear cold wars would be the stuff of nightmares. Will we wake in time? By Niall Ferguson.

They're Back?
I have been going through the recent report, “Iran: Time for a New Approach” co-chaired by Zbigniew Brzezinski (in charge at National Security during the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979) and Robert Gates (involved in Iran-Contra)...

Tehran, Coming Clean at Last?
Iran recently agreed to grant international arms inspectors greater access to its nuclear facilities. Small comfort. By Hoover fellow Charles Recknagel.

Nuclear Showdown?
Oct. 15, 2006: NEWSWEEK's Michael Hirsch; Dr. Sidney Drell, Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution; co-author, "The Gravest Danger: Nuclear Weapons...

Should the U.S. attack Iran?
Insight Editor Jim Finefrock talks with Abbas Milani, director of Iranian studies at Stanford University, about the repercussions of a U.S. air assault on Iran's nuclear facilities...

Ahmadinejad's version of Puritanism at the UN
Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, gave a generally vapid talk at the United Nations, intimating but rarely naming names of those he deemed guilty...

Insanity on a Global Scale
It's a mad world...

Orange Grove: Ahmadinejad's version of Puritanism
Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, gave a generally vapid talk at the United Nations, intimating but rarely naming names of those he deemed guilty...

Should the US Nuke Iran and Syria?
In a recent article, "Will the U.S. Defend Itself?", economist Walter Williams seems to make a case for nuclear war on Syria and Iran. His case cries out for a response...

Nuclear Iran could be a disaster for U.S.
I t is hard to think of a time when a nation -- and a whole civilization -- has drifted more futilely toward a bigger catastrophe than that looming over the United States and western civilization today...

Experts say Iran delays on nuclear enrichment They see Tehran using tactic as way of sustaining program
Iran has promised to respond by Tuesday to a Western package of incentives seeking to stop its nuclear enrichment program…

The Vocabulary of Untruth
A "ceasefire" would occur should Hezbollah give back kidnapped Israelis and stop launching missiles; it would never follow a unilateral cessation of Israeli bombing…

The third world war has begun
The civilized world stands balanced between victory and defeat.

A Strange War
Sum up the declarations of Hezbollah's leaders, Syrian diplomats, Iranian nuts, West Bank terrorists, and Arab commentators — and this latest Middle East war seems one of the strangest in a long history of strange conflicts…

Now isn't the time for restraint
Imagine that this morning 50 missiles were launched from Cuba and exploded in Miami…

Creating an Islamic Republic: Iranian Collections from the Hoover Library and Archives
The shah grasps at the coattails of Uncle Sam as a fire-tongued dragon prepares to devour him; women with clenched fists raised march in the shadow of Shi‘i heroine Zeinab; awaiting execution, a row of men, blindfolded with hands tied behind their backs, yell “Long Live Iran!”

Both U.S., Iran play for time in talks over nuclear arsenal
Why did the United States suddenly reverse course and agree to negotiate directly with the Iranians over their development of a nuclear arsenal …

A case for political war with Iran
My friend Alex Alexiev, vice president at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C., has been promoting a way to repel terrorism that hasn’t received the attention it deserves…

Engagement or confrontation?
Engage or confront…

Hoover Conference Examines Iran and Its Nuclear Program
Recent developments regarding Iran's intent and ability to develop a nuclear weapons program, covered widely by the media, highlight the importance of a conference hosted by the Hoover Institution on November 11.

What Are the Options?
How can we get Tehran to give up its nuclear ambitions? By judicious use of the carrot—and the stick. By Geoffrey Kemp.

Order Out of Chaos
The mad, mad world of Iranian foreign policy. By Abbas William Samii.

The New War for Iraq
There is only one scenario for American success in Iraq—and it won’t be easy. By Larry Diamond. Sidebar: Reflections on the American Occupation It’s time for a smarter American strategy. By Larry Diamond.

Creating an Islamic Republic: Iranian Collections from the Hoover Library and Archives