Gingrich right: Iran is a tough nut

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Updated: December 26, 2011 8:45AM

Newt Gingrich’s moderate stance on immigration commanded most of the attention after Tuesday night’s Republican presidential forum. But it was his tough prescription for Iran that deserves more scrutiny and follow-up questions, not just for the former House speaker but for all U.S. policy makers.

His position — the most aggressive among the GOP candidates — came in a discussion, during the CNN-Heritage Foundation-American Enterprise Institute-sponsored debate, about whether the United States should launch a military strike to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Gingrich said that should be “a last recourse, and only as a step toward replacing the regime.”

Bombing Iran to stop or delay its nuclear program if sanctions fail is hardly a novel position. It’s held by many Democrats as well as many Republicans. But seeing a military strike as a step in a wider campaign to topple the Islamist mullahs and fanatics in Tehran hasn’t been enunciated by any major figure so far as I am aware.

But isn’t Gingrich acknowledging a simple truth, that a military attack on Iran wouldn’t be a one-off affair? This is not Iraq or Syria, both of whose nuclear programs were derailed by Israeli attacks.

Iran is a much more serious military power. Tehran has hegemonic ambitions in the Mideast and aggressive if covert goals far beyond the region, reaching even into the U.S. backyard in Latin America. Its bellicose, chest-thumping leaders wouldn’t swallow an attack as the weaker dictators of Iraq and Syria did.

Gingrich also asserted “if we were serious, we could break the Iranian regime” within a year by “cutting off the gasoline supply to Iran and then, frankly, sabotaging the only refinery they have.” Iran is, ironically, an oil-rich nation that has to import gas because it is refinery-poor. Sanctions already have produced fuel shortages, causing much discontent.

Would a military strike aimed at toppling Iran’s regime include bombing that refinery? What else would be needed to achieve the ultimate end? These questions should be asked of Gingrich and anyone advocating military action. An attack to stop Iran’s nuclear program may, in the end, be the right course, but we should approach it with our eyes wide open.

Incivility redux

My Tuesday column complaining about the booing of First Lady Michelle Obama at a NASCAR event prompted readers to ask how I felt about the band for Jimmy Fallon’s “Late Night” show insulting GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann by playing “Lyin’ Ass Bitch” when she appeared on it. It was crude, rude, no class, sexist and deplorable. No way to treat a guest.