Is Iran getting more dangerous? The signs point that way. The new President of the regime was a leader of the radicals who took over the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979, an act that finished Jimmy Carter's presidency. He reportedly ran foreign assassination teams, and established the Jerusalem Brigade of the Revolutionary Guards, which supports the terrorist organization Hezbollah.

Now President Ahmadinejad has appointed as Defense Minister the man who was in charge of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards in 1983 when 241 US Marines were killed in their sleep by a truck bomb in Beirut. Iran零 Minister of Revolutionary Guards, Mohsen Rafiqdoost, said in 1987 that, "

Both the TNT and the ideology which in one blast sent to hell 400 officers, NCOs, and soldiers at the Marines headquarters were provided by Iran."

Outside analysts seem to agree. The truck bomb that demolished the Marine barracks was among the largest non—nuclear explosions that have ever been detonated on the face of the Earth. It was equal in force to between 15,000 and 21,000 pounds of TNT.

These are the people who are now going for nuclear weapons. But in Germany, Chancellor Schroeder is on his anti—American horse, blaming the US for the breakdown of Europe's effort to bribe the Iranians into being nice. And Michael Portillo, a perennial candidate for British Tory leader, just wrote an article demanding that the US "give more respect" to Tehran. But respect is not what the radicals are looking for.

As Iran becomes more dangerous,  Europe's state of denial will increase. Get ready for a chorus of voices clamoring that Iran deserves its own Bomb.

——— it's only fair. After all, who would be mad enough to use it?

James Lewis   8 16 05