■"U.S. Deploys Slide Show to Press Case Against Iran," by Dafna Linzer, Washington Post, 14 September 2005, p. A7.

■"India Balks at Confronting Iran, Straining Its Friendship With U.S.," by Steven R. Weisman, New York Times, 15 September 2005, p. A11.

The U.S. is pushing a secret PowerPoint briefing to allies on Iran, trying to convince them that the WMD question is drawing to a head there.

Guess how far we get with India, which is planning a huge natural gas pipeline from Iran through Pakistan? Not very far. We can try to tempt India with nuke technology, but we can't get them to choose between gas and nukes. India will need both in spades.

Bush got nowhere yesterday with Hu Jintao either. China recently signed a huge oil and gas deal with Tehran.

The U.S. never gets a peep out of Tokyo either. Care to guess how dependent Japan is on Iran's energy?

The White House keeps saying Iran doesn't need nukes cause it has all those hydrocarbons.

Funny how it never asks itself why Iran wants nukes, and yet pursues them in such a slow-mo fashion. Strategic listeners we are not.