The options are pretty cut and dry - continue trying for diplomatic solutions or bomb them! Condoleeza Rice wants to continue her failed negotiations in EU style and Cheney wants to bomb them.
A hard line needs to be drawn, and I believe this line lies somewhere in the middle. Because of partisanship, due to failure of the democrats to understand the threat Iran poses and the doves with the current administration, this line will be continually blurred. Military strikes alone are certainly out of the question.
Rice has gotten a little foggy as she continues to feel Russia, China, the IAEA and the EU will be the key to solving this crisis. To date everything has failed an has allowed Iran to continue their pursuit for nuclear weapons.
Be it overtly or covertly, Russia has been meddling and encouraging Iran. This ranges from economic and technological support in Iran's quest for nuclear weapons to supplying arms through Syria. (Maybe Ninny Pelosi should go talk to Syria again, they're still laughing from her first trip)
From Iran Focus --
In the year since Ms. Rice announced the new strategy for the United States to join forces with Europe, Russia and China to press Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment activities, Iran has installed more than a thousand centrifuges to enrich uranium. The International Atomic Energy Agency predicts that 8,000 or so could be spinning by the end of the year......
Those hard numbers are at the core of the debate within the administration over whether Mr. Bush should warn Iran’s leaders that he will not allow them to get beyond some yet-undefined milestones, leaving the implication that a military strike on the country’s facilities is still an option.
Even beyond its nuclear program, Iran is emerging as an increasing source of trouble for the Bush administration by inflaming the insurgencies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and in Gaza, where it has provided military and financial support to the militant Islamic group Hamas, which now controls the Gaza Strip.
The issue was raised at a closed-door White House meeting recently when the departing deputy national security adviser, J. D. Crouch, told senior officials that President Bush needed an assessment of how the stalemate over Iran’s nuclear program was likely to play out over the next 18 months, said officials briefed on the meeting.
.......officials from the Treasury Department have been trying to use the mounting conservative calls for a military strike to press Europe and Russia to expand economic sanctions against Iran.
In the year since the United States made its last offer to Iran, the Iranians have gone from having a few dozen centrifuges in operation to building a facility that at last count, a month ago, had more than 1,300. More.....
The worldwide threat posed by Iran, will need cooperation from a coalition of countries. An air, land & sea blockade, along with economic sanctions adhered to by ALL countries needs to be the first step.
The second step would be a military buildup using combined forces from this coalition of countries. And NO, the useless U. N. would not oversee the troops!
Third and most importantly, Arab countries would need band together against Iran. This in itself maybe the biggest hurdle. If Saudi Arabia would stop playing both sides, they would be a perfect unifier of the Arab/Muslim countries.
These measures along with more support for Iranian opposition groups would hopefully avert any actual military operations.
Failure to quell Iran's nuclear weapon ambition and Middle East meddling, be it by diplomacy, military action or a combination of both, will possibly lead to Israel taking on a larger role. This will do nothing but complicate things more.
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Don't be scared!