Roger Cohen, "The False Iran Debate": More Flatulence from the Master

After repeatedly telling us in 2009 that Iran is "not totalitarian," you would think that Roger Cohen would have the good sense to bow his head in shame and avoid further proclamations concerning the Middle East. Regrettably, such is not to be.

In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "The False Iran Debate" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/opinion/the-false-iran-debate.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss), Cohen would have us believe that Netanyahu is bluffing about the possibility that Israel might attack Iran to stop its nuclear program:

"I’ve never believed Netanyahu, going it alone without U.S. support, would attack an Iran whose stop-go nuclear program still stands some distance from the capacity to make — let alone actually produce — a bomb. The cost-benefit analysis does not add up: you don’t have to be the former Mossad chief Meir Dagan to see that."

Iran "still stands some distance from the capacity to make a bomb"? Thanks for your informed assessment, Roger, but in January, US Defense Secretary Panetta acknowledged that Iran is only a year away from building a nuclear weapon (see: http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News/Article.aspx?id=249800).

"The cost-benefit analysis does not add up"? I agree that from a Western perspective, the cost-benefit analysis indeed does not add up; however, Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei is not guided by "cost-benefit" analysis. Rather, this is a ruthless killer guided by intractable Shiite beliefs, as evidenced by Iran's soaring rate of public executions (see: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/12/us-iran-rights-idUSBRE82B16N20120312), which include executions for homosexuality and offenses against Islam.

Netanyahu won't go it alone without US support against Iran's nuclear facilities? Suffice it to say that in this instance I know better than Cohen, who is writing from London, and I can assure you that Netanyahu is not bluffing. Khamenei, speaking to worshippers during prayers at the campus of the University of Tehran, recently stated (http://www.mehrnews.com/en/newsdetail.aspx?NewsID=1524218):

"The tumor of Israel, which is in fact cancerous, must be removed from the region, and this will definitely happen."

This is an instance where Netanyahu must take Khamenei at his word, and the Israeli prime minister cannot afford to gamble away Israel's existence.