Will US Cowboy tactics work against Iran, a nuclear armed state?

SHOOT: The answer is pretty obvious. The USA needs to make friends, not incite resentments. Granted, the Arabs have extremeists that aren't interested in negotiating, but you can always attempt to negotiate with those who will. The USA is no longer in a position to dictate terms, but that said, we will probably see stability and peace increasingly eroding as global economic conditions worsen, and opportunities for mischief improve.

NYT: Mr. Obama’s aides, in return, worry that the Israelis are trying to force action too soon by shortening their estimate of how long it would take Iran to manufacture a weapon. In fact, no one knows how quickly it might be able to do so, but it has already solved many of the technological problems.

clipped from www.nytimes.com One of the Iran experts who testified last week, Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings Institution, cautioned that Iran was so porous it could circumvent an oil cutoff, and that the potential for confrontation would be high. “The Iranians are not terribly good at capitulation,” Ms. Maloney said. “This is a regime that tends to believe the best defense is a good offense.” The White House has been extraordinarily tight-lipped about its Iran strategy, and has not publicly discussed the legislation. But already it has become part of the behind-the-scenes maneuvering with Israel. Israeli officials have argued in recent weeks that the American unwillingness to confront North Korea more forcefully as it develops a nuclear program was evidence that the United States might be willing to tolerate an Iranian nuclear weapons capability. “The question we have to face,” one American diplomat said, “is whether any sanction at this point can really deter them, given how close they are now.”