Iran's Ballilstic Missle Test

Iran's Ballilstic Missile Test

From the July 9, 2008 International Herald Tribune:

PARIS: One day after threatening to strike Israeli and U.S. interests if attacked, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards were reported Wednesday to have test-fired nine missiles, including one that Tehran claims has the range to reach Israel.
State-run media, quoted by Western news agencies, said the tests near the Strait of Hormuz included long- and medium-range missiles, among them a new version of the Shahab-3, which Tehran maintains can hit targets 2,000 kilometers, or 1,250 miles, away.
The reported tests coincide with increasingly tense negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program, which Iran says is for civilian purposes but which many Western governments suspect is meant for building nuclear weapons.

Hmmm. Ballistic missiles. What even our European allies are concerned about is a nuclear weapon development program. A president who talks about wiping Israel off the map--and who thinks the Twelfth Imam's return is imminent--who Shiite eschatology teaches will lead Islam in an overwhelming military defeat of the non-Islamic world. What do you suppose the chances are that this is going to lead to war?

Obama thinks we can talk to Iran. Well, yeah. But I rather think that talk is going to be effective only with the prospect of serious destruction as a backup threat.