While you were all watching Greece and the European banks, Iran was ramping up as the real issue which will most affect the world, and US economy. Now we are beginning to see the real impact in the form of higher oil prices. That is just the start. The Iranians have made it very clear they have no intention to reduce their nuclear ambitions, and they know if they get a nuclear weapon, then the entire global balance changes. Israel knows that far better than Obama and is not going to wait for Obama to realize the world, and especially Israel is faced with an existential threat that is not going to be mitigated by talking and an “open hand” policy. We are now counting down in months, not years to when something major has to happen.

Oil prices are unlikely to come back down for quite awhile. The rebuff of the IAEA has confirmed Iran has no intention to cooperate, and every intention to race ahead before the US is ready to see reality. With oil going up and up, the economic recovery is in jeopardy, and industrial strength is more and more in question. Higher gas prices will harm the hospitality industry and it will mean higher transport costs for food and other products. That crimps consumer spending on things other than food and gasoline and that reduces hiring.

When Obama sends the chairman of the joint chiefs on TV to say an attack on Iran by Israel will be destabilizing, that Iranian leaders are rational actors, and other things which signal to Iran that we will do nothing militarily, then that just encourages them to even more aggressive behavior by showing weakness. It was exactly the opposite of what should have been postured. When we ignore the attempted assignation of the Saudi ambassador in a Washington restaurant, that just encourages the potential for another terror threat inside the US or elsewhere. When we sit by and say we need to talk Assad into leaving instead of taking decisive action to prevent the ongoing massacre, that just encourages the Iranians to further repress their own people and crush any revolution. To me, Homs is the modern day equivalent of the Warsaw Ghetto, and the world reaction is not a lot different.