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Source: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/an_atomic_window_ZSAhlma2fqGJJk0FFeBopO
Western Will to Confront Troublemakers Recedes
(New York Post) Arthur Herman - By failing to deal resolutely and forcefully with Tehran's nuclear ambitions, we've been sending a clear message to other rogue-nation nuclear wannabes that we don't really care. Syria has been steadily working on a nuke-weapons program. In 2007, Israeli jets pounded a site in Syria's remote eastern desert where, it was thought, Assad's scientists were working with North Korean help on making a bomb. Ironically, just five years ago, Assad's vicious, unpopular regime seemed on the ropes. It had been chased out of Lebanon by the democratic "Cedar Revolution" and stood in international disgrace for its links to the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Assad today sees Iran become a regional power by supporting terror - even killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq and giving Scud missiles to Hizbullah to aim at Israel - while the West did nothing. He has seen that the best way to bolster a faltering dictatorship is to pursue a nuclear-weapons program. As long as U.S. power looks impotent and America's will to confront and deal with troublemakers recedes, we will encourage more predatory regimes like Iran and Syria and Venezuela.