So what to do? Why not just rev up a nuke threat, and create a crisis. The score so far seems to be hugely on the side of Iranian objectives:

a. huge increases in oil revenue looks to have salvaged their ecnonomy since their actions have added a fear premium (maybe 10-15 US$ per barrel?)
b. purge the malecontents. Stalin killed millions mostly without notice while the West focused on all kinds of things.
c. other external activities viewed unflavorable by others are mostly given a pass and fade to noise level.
d. add immensely to the “Arab street” image of Iran (ala Nassar) in standing up to the West.
e. enlist the usual divisions in the West that seem only to focus on the most recent event as “crisis” management.

I’d agree this is a gambit, but a minor one. This one will play out over the next year or so, much like the Ali Rope-a-Dope. Iran Islamist will be much, much stronger and will claim yet another win in a much greater game.

Time magazine reveals that they too received a love letter from Iran regarding the regime’s runaway nuclear program….a second document, written by a top Iranian official and given to TIME just before Ahmadinejad’s letter was made public, offers a m…

The blogosphere’s limited interest is, if anything, even more inexplicable.

Well, it now appears that Iran wasn’t sending President Bush a love note earlier this week. It was a call to submit to Islam or face the consequences. Just as Robert Spencer had said when the contents were first revealed.