Pakistan is the reason why we can't do Iran right now

■"Hiding in Plain Sight: Why Pakistan still isn't aggressively pursuing the ex-Taliban leaders living inside the country," by Tim McGirk, Time, 29 November 2004, p. 44.

■"C.I.A. Says Pakistanis Gave Iran Nuclear Aid: An illicit network passed bomb-making designs in the 90's," by Douglas Jehl, New York Times, 24 November 2004, p. A8.

Pakistan gave Iran the bomb, basically, and we can either accept that or turn it into a giant West versus the Shiites. If we chose the latter course, we canít expect much support from either India or China, because both countries need Iran economically and both countries need Pakistan to be stable militarily. India has to live with Pakistan and its bomb, thereís just no two ways about it, and China sees Pakistan as itís great land bridge into the Persian Gulf region. So if we make Iran with the bomb the center of all evil, weíre picking up the Pakistani problem and all the New Core allegiances that go with that problem, and that scenario pathway gets you about as closes to Hungtingtonís ìclash of civilizationsî than any other nightmare I can dream up.

If we let the Global War on Terrorism draw a line through the Islamic world, isolating the heavier Shiite populations in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, weíll find ourselves providing a strategic rear to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda that may end up being impossible to surmount for many, many years, especially is we simultaneously isolate Russia and its ìnear abroad.î Check out a map. In that strategic package, Osama is safely embedded deep inside an opposing security rule setóbe default, becoming the New Coreís war by proxy with the West.

Thatís why Iran is more important now than ever. Getting to Iran stops that domino effect from going into motion. Otherwise, we may find ourselves staring across a serious civilizational faultline for decades.