If this is what passes for European diplomacy — taking away the threat of force to remove WMD, we — no they — have a lot of learning to do.
 
To the dismay of Bush administration officials, British U.N. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw all but ruled out a military response to Iran's nuclear program. In an interview with the BBC, Straw was asked if the world would support U.S. or Israeli military action against Iran.
"Not only is that inconceivable," Straw replied, "but I think the prospect of it [an attack] happening is inconceivable."

Straw went so far as to imply that an Israeli or U.S. strike on Iran's nuclear facilities would amount to another Sept. 11.

"I don't think, please God, that we are going to see in the next four years the most cataclysmic event for international relations that we have seen in 60 years which occurred on 11 September 2001," he said.

The Bush administration and Israel may dismiss Iran's nuclear diplomacy as a ruse designed to buy time while the ayatollahs secretly pursue weapons of mass destruction. And they may dismiss the European approach as naïve.

But they cannot ignore the British government.

If Israel were to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities, as it destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1982, British troops in Basra, just a few miles from the Iranian border, would be vulnerable to massive retaliation from Iran's much larger army. And Prime Minister Tony Blair's hopes for a peaceful resolution of the Israeli—Palestinian conflict would go up in smoke.

In short, the strongest deterrent to war between Israel and Iran may well be Great Britain.

Ed Lasky  11 17 04