Exactly! It is the political opposition to the Iraq war, both at home and abroad, that keeps the Bush administration from taking effective action to smash the Mullahs. Instead, Bush has bowed to the demands of his critics that he allow those "sophisticated" Europeans to take the lead, with of course brought on the present crisis.The most interesting thing about the structure of the standoff between the West and Iran is that what chiefly prevents a regime change in Teheran is not the want of means, but the want of will. The ayatollah's fundamental defense lies in the well-founded belief that the United States has expended too much political capital in deposing Saddam to undertake another regime change operation in Teheran. Safety for the ayatollahs does not consist in the assurance that there aren't enough US ground, air and naval units to smash their regime, but in the calculation that no American President would chance it after three years of political pillorying for OIF.
That means that the ayatollahs are safe for so long as nothing occurs to prevent a sudden stiffening in political will in the West.
Read Wretchard's commentary here.
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