CNN.com - Rice: U.S. faces 'no greater challenge'�than Iran - Mar 9, 2006

CNN.com - Rice: U.S. faces 'no greater challenge'�than Iran - Mar 9, 2006: "Testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Rice said the Iranian government seems 'determined ... to develop a nuclear weapon in defiance' of the international community."

She said,'the Iranian government "will be isolated if it continues down" its militant road, but that it was important the Iranian people not be cut off. "'

"Meanwhile, Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, said the U.S. focus on Iran's nuclear programs was a "pretext" for what he called its "psychological war" against Iran and its Islamic system of government."

I wonder if implication is an accident, that the U.S. is playing a "psychological war." Is he saying it is just a bluff?

According to IRNA, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said, "the Americans are well aware that due to the strategic depth of the late Imam Khomeini's spiritual influence and the highly attractive system of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the world of Islam, today in any election held in Islamic states, such as that in Iraq and Egypt, people will vote for Islamic groups."

He also mentioned Iran's continued cooperation with the IAEA and that "over the past two and a half years, the government has tried in every possible way to solve the issue." Which unfortunately for us, to Khomeini and others "cooperation," is another way of stalling for time with no interest in following through on anything that will not allow them to continue on this path.

Once again, Iran will turn this into an issue of the U.S. as the bad guy. Since the U.S. tends to be the only one forcefull/vociferous enough about it and plays the game slightly less, although we sure use enough diplomatese.

This is far from over; remember as much as people like to think Bush "rushed to war," in '03 it had been going on for quite some time (early '90s for the really dense ones that insist we rushed to war), with Hussein using these type of stalling tactics.