Give Crippling Iran Sanctions a Chance

There is no greater threat to national and international security than the possibility that Iran’s current rulers — militant Islamists, terrorist masters, and sworn enemies of both the Great Satan and the Little Satan — may acquire nuclear weapons. Recently, a memo by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (leaked to the New York Times) advised the president that the development of a strategy to confront this threat is long overdue.

Obama hoped confrontation could be avoided. He came into office eager to engage the Islamic Republic, to strike a “grand bargain” that would give Iran’s theocrats respect and just about anything else they wanted in exchange for their agreement not to develop and wield nukes. More than a year later, this approach has yielded nothing. Iran’s rulers don’t even want to negotiate.