ARTICLE: Iran: Secret memo reveals Khamenei plan for nuclear arms, says report, AKI, September 15, 2008

As I write in Great Powers, in the end, all these stories will end up being true. Iran is highly incentivized to get actual nuclear weapons, to rule out U.S. invasion and Israeli strikes and to put Iran on a level playing field with the region's 200-plus-warhead mini-superpower Israel.

America decides to lock in on Iran instead of Iraq, then Iraq would be in this position today most likely. But we chose Iraq first. Good choice, in my mind. But given the poor performance of our missing-in-capacity SysAdmin force at the time, this is the inevitable result.

Whine about it all you want, that's strategic reality--as we have decided to trigger it. Once we get over the impulse to go all wobbly, then the real thinking begins.

(Thanks: Craig Nordin)