Iranian Containment without a Container

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton forthrightly admitted yesterday that the Administration's Iranian policy of the last year is a failure. She stated, "I don't think anyone can doubt that our outreach has produced very little in terms of any kind of a positive response from the Iranians." Commentary's Jennifer Rubin points out that this means "the entire process has been delayed for yet another year as the Iranians inch forward to the day when they will declare themselves a nuclear power," and speculates that soon "we will hear that "containment" is really the only option left." She then concludes, "One wonders if that wasn't the end game all along." I don't think she needs to wonder too hard about that. This Administration had a well-developed containment strategy for a nuclear armed Iran at least as long ago as July of this year, as Ms. Secretary Clinton let slip here.  Apparently, from half a world away, the U.S. nuclear umbrella will prevent Iran from intimidating or dominating the region.  Ms. Clinton's remarkable strategic theory depends, of course, on the Mad Mullahs of Iran behaving like the risk-averse Commissars of Russia in the face of our nuclear deterrence. More to the point, it depends on those same Mullahs being convinced that this Administration has the cojones to actually visit nuclear annihilation on Iran. Given the Administration's well-nigh sycophantic pleading and hollow threats of sanctions over the last year, I don't think the Mullahs will be shaking in their qabaas when their nuclear missiles go online.