Finally

We noted Tuesday that pressure is finally being applied to the mullahs, after years of UN impotence.

We thanked Obama for his role in this play (and should have thanked the EU, Australia and Canada besides) just as we criticized BO for abandoning Iranian protestors earlier. Obama may have come to his senses.

In the last piece we noted that Lloyds of London has halted insurance for shipments of gasoline products to Iran (key focus of the latest sanctions), and that such shipments have shrunk to about 1/3 of normal. We also noted that in a complimentary effort to effect change with these troglodytes officials are beginning to be more public in a prediction of a strike, short of nuclear compliance. Hayden was one of these. He’s not currently an official, but close. And it’s obvious that the Adm itself has adopted a firmer stance.

Other observers have followed our lead. Krauthammer notes today that in Ahmadinejad’s 7/26 prediction that the US and Israel will soon attack two countries in the region, is evidence of the growing pressure; Krauthammer did not use the phrase but we all know it to be the old invent-an-enemy trick so routinely used by despots.

The lever of refined gasoline - sanction, embargo or blockade - has existed for years, there but for the courage of some to pick it up. The very public growing threat of attack (the UAE ambassador to the US just recently indicated such a preference) adds to the pressure.

The best result will be for the masses to rise up, correctly blaming the mullahs for their misery. That is, to not only end the nuclear program but end the mullahs in the bargain and usher in a consensual government. This is what all of us hope for. It is a very real possibility.

Robert Craven