Iran: taking advantage

Here's a link to the Register's editorial on the latest IAEA report suggesting that Iran has been playing cat-and-mouse with international nuclear inspectors. The IAEA doesn't think Iran has a military nuclear program, but it's worried that some of the things it's doing could eventually have a military application, and that there's considerable deceit going on. We argue that precisely because the possibility of Iran acquiring nukes is tangible, now is the time to begin the process of recommencing contact that could eventually lead to renewed diplomatic ties. The U.S. acts a bit like a petulant child in a schoolyard in international relations: I don't like you so I'm not going to talk to you. We forget that one reason to have diplomatic relations is to have people (including spies) in countries that could pose problems, as we did throughout the Cold War, to learn as much as possible about them. We currently know less about Iran than we did about Iraq before the invasion, and as event have shown, we didn't know much.

Pakistan digging out

Here's a link to the Register's editorial this week on the rioting in Pakistan that finally has seemed to settle down a little in the wake of the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Poor Pakistan, which some have called an essentially ungovernable country (not necessarily a bad thing, but in Pakistan's case it is). The significant U.S. interest is that Pakistan's nuclear weapons remain secure. It has been reported that U.S. special forces are standing by to grab Pakistan's nukes in the event the government falls or a civil war erupts. Not a bad use of those forces, though opne naturally hopes they won't be needed for that mission.