Posted on: Saturday, November 20, 2004

EDITORIAL
Threatening Iran: Echoes of Iraq war?

In an eerie repetition of the prelude to the Iraq war, hawks in Washington have begun warning of a nuclear program in Iran that they say must be stopped by economic sanctions, military action or "regime change."

Nuclear weapons in the hands of Iranian ayatollahs is as unthinkable, more or less, as having them in the hands of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. But Iraq, as it turned out, didn't have nuclear weapons, and Iran now claims — albeit not entirely convincingly — that its program is only for energy and, anyway, they're suspending it.

Given the intensity of fighting in Iraq, it's hard to imagine taking on another, even more powerful country, but the Bush administration seems to be ratcheting up its threats.

Secretary of State Colin Powell weighed in, saying fresh intelligence shows that Iran is "actively working" on a program to enable its missiles to carry nuclear bombs.

But — dejá vu? — this turns out to be unvetted information from an Iranian dissident group with its own agenda.

Meanwhile, Britain, France and Germany have reached a deal in which Iran has agreed to suspend uranium enrichment in return for talks about future economic benefits.

As in Iraq, Washington's hawks are unwilling to place faith in European negotiators, or International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors, or Iranian veracity. But it's increasingly clear that more patience might have saved tens of thousands of lives in Iraq, and should be the watchword for Iran, for now.