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Anointing Iran
(Washington Post) Charles Krauthammer - In December, President Obama said that he wished to see Iran ultimately become a "very successful regional power." His wish - a nightmare for the Western-oriented Arab states - is becoming a reality. The strategic reality of the new Middle East is clear to everyone: Iran rising, assisted, astonishingly, by the U.S. The only problem is that Iran today is radical, clerical, and deeply anti-Western. The regime's ultimate - and openly declared - strategic purpose is to drive the American infidel from the region and either subordinate or annihilate America's Middle Eastern allies. Can an American president really believe that appeasing Iran will moderate its behavior and ideology, adherence to which is now yielding undreamed of success? Iran went into the nuclear negotiations heavily sanctioned, isolated internationally, hemorrhaging financially - and this was even before the collapse of oil prices. After 17 months of serial American concessions, the Iranian economy is growing again, its forces and proxies are on the march through the Arab Middle East, and it is on the verge of having its nuclear defiance rewarded and legitimized.