Iran: Our Next Crisis?

We're on a collision course with this radical regime -- unless we play just the right card.

By Kenneth M. Pollack

From Reader's Digest

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Convincing Iran

America is the "world oppressor." Israel "must be wiped off the map." The Holocaust "is a myth." A world "without America and Zionism" is "attainable and surely can be achieved."

The hateful pronouncements of an Al Qaeda leader? No, they come from someone whose prominence makes the words especially chilling: Iran's recently elected president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. While Ayatollah Ali Khamanei has the last word on Iran's policies, Ahmadinejad has growing support from the masses and, for now at least, the backing of Iran's ruling clerics. He is the public face of a regime that is one of the leading state sponsors of terrorism. And his rhetoric is deeply disturbing for one reason above all others: The Islamic Republic of Iran, an avowed enemy of America and the West, may well be on a path toward building nuclear weapons.

The Iranians insist their nuclear program is peaceful, to be used only to generate electricity. But Iran has lied in the past about nearly every aspect of its nuclear program, including secret facilities the regime acknowledged only after they were revealed by opposition groups. In another instance, the Iranians were caught experimenting with a substance called polonium-210, which is used only in deep-space exploration and nuclear weapons. Iran, of course, has no deep-space program.

Now, the United States and several other major powers are offering Iran economic and diplomatic incentives to forego its quest for nuclear arms. Success will hinge on Iran's response -- not in words, but in verifiable actions. Unless we succeed in convincing Iran to halt these efforts, it will probably join the nuclear club sometime in the next decade.