Column by Brett Nolan

With Iran on the brink of acquiring nuclear weapons, you can bet that the Democrats in Congress are more concerned about  former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales than keeping the free world safe.

Sunday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that Iran is now enriching uranium in 3,000 centrifuges.

This contradicts previous U.N. reports assuring us that uranium enrichment in Iran had slowed and that the terrorist country was cooperating with civilized society.

But cooperation is the last thing on President Ahmadinejad’s mind.

His recent speech was full of the usual anti-Western rhetoric, claiming that ‘‘(t)he West thought the Iranian nation would give in after just a resolution,’’ according to breitbart.com.

“Just” a resolution? That sounds promising.

So while the liberals in Congress are busy accomplishing nothing, Iran is working toward nuclear armament. Their defiance is merely shrugged off by congressional leaders who would rather worry about why nine attorneys were fired than the disturbingly steady moves Iran is making toward obtaining nuclear weapons.

Democrats insist if we stick to diplomacy in the Middle East, all will be fine. It’s this promise of peace that they plan to take all the way to the White House in 2008.

The only problem is that countries like Iran have no intention of cooperating with our diplomatic resolutions.

You might call this the Democrats’ “inconvenient truth.”

The situation in Iran is so disturbing that even France has stepped up to the plate. During a speech given last Monday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy acknowledged that military force might be necessary if Iran doesn’t abandon its nuclear program.

In as aggressive a way as any Frenchman can put it, Sarkozy declared that continued sanctions against Iran is the only thing that can stop us from “the Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran.”

It’s a pretty grim situation when France brings up military force before we do.

The problem we find ourselves in is twofold. We absolutely cannot stand for Iran continuing its pursuit of nuclear arms. A president who has openly declared his wish to see Israel removed from the face of the map cannot be allowed to develop such devastating weapons.

At the same time, however, we clearly can’t go rushing into Iran, arms waving and bombs dropping. It’s irresponsible, and we haven’t exhausted all our other options yet.

But unlike what the Democrats on capitol hill think, we can’t take military force off the table. Iran must be aware that if push comes to shove, we will use force to stop them.

Ahmadinejad understands what’s going on in Washington, and he’s using it against us. His defiance toward the U.N. is only possible because we allow it.

As long as we’ve taken military force off the table, Iran can do whatever they want — which means developing whatever weapons they want.

After all, to Ahmadinejad, diplomatic solutions are “just a resolution.”

A nuclear Iran could mean devastation to the free world. And while Ahmadinejad has spent the last eight months enriching more and more uranium, Democrats have wasted their time on a witch-hunt.

Brett Nolan is a philosophy sophomore. E-mail at [email protected].