My Dilemma Part I

I, apparently, am one of the only people left that is undecided about who to vote for in the upcoming election. Going into the debate Thursday night, I had hoped that it would either a.) further reinforce my support for George W. Bush or b.) that Kerry would be able to convince me that he can be trusted when it comes to securing Iraq. Unfortunately, I didn't count on c.) the fact that Kerry would beat Bush based on style, yet tie or possibly even lose to Bush on substance. National polls say that while Kerry won the debate, Bush is still ahead in the polls, at the same margin.

As everyone who reads this blog knows, the Iranian nuclear crisis is, in my view, one of the most important foreign policy issues this country will face in the next year or two. But I was sadly disappointed that none of the candidates said anything worth while on Iran. If Bush is re-elected and the international community says the air strikes probablly need to happen, what has Bush done to prepare the American public for such an operation? Nothing at all. On the other hand, Kerry apparently wants to

provide the nuclear fuel, test them, see whether or not they were actually looking for it for peaceful purposes. If they weren't willing to work a deal, then we could have put sanctions together.

As I said in the comments section by The Glittering Eye:

Maybe I'm just not thinking of the right examples but haven't most countries that have had economic snactions slapped on them, been able to manipulate them in such a way so they could further entrench their regime while straving their citizens? (Bush did point out that the US has had sanctions on Iran since 1979) [UPDATE: I was wrong on the sanction year. According the US Treasury [PDF] President Reagan put sanctions on Iran in 1987, followed by a separate sanctions regime applied by President Clinton in 1995, although those were later eased by Clinton in April 2000.] Say harsher sanctions are applied to Tehran, won't that make them, you know, more threatened about a potential collaspe of government to either become more hostile or covertly sell the nuke to al Qaeda?

If I were the Iranian Mullahs, you damn well better bet I would be emboldened if Kerry won.

I'll write more later.