The Mullahs and the Copperheads

Today's big news: Iran sharply expands uranium enrichment. And why shouldn't they? After the British sailors hostage debacle, in which the UK's European "allies" could not even bring themselves to consider economic sanctions for Iran's act of piracy, Tehran now understands that it can get away with practically anything, and the worst conseqences it will face for misbehavior will be some hand-wringing at the United Nations and in the capitals of Europe.

The mullahs also had to be encouraged by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's fool's errand (as Lebanese blogger Anton Efendi called it) to Syria, Iran's partner in terrorism. Iran can now reasonably expect Democratic leaders to react to any further provocations with the same fecklessness as the UN and the EU, and worse (or for them, better) actively subvert any administration attempts to deal with Tehran more strongly in the future.

Pelosi's illegal trip to Syria came on the heels of her disgraceful actions before the recess in preventing a Congressional vote on a simple resolution that condemned Iran for seizing the British sailors. With the EU and UN now proven useless, the only thing that stands in the way of Iran's nuclear ambitions is the United States. And now the mullahs know that a large segment of the US political class can't even bring itself to challenge them verbally, let alone militarily.

With the Democratic leadership is going down a path of cowardice and retreat, the national party has sunk to its lowest level since it adopted a "peace at any price" policy in the 1860s. Today's Copperheads are just as short-sighted - and just as dangerous to the nation's well being - as they were during the Civil War.