Munich...not the movie.

I've been noodling on doing a big tour-de-force post on the similarities between Iran and Germany in 1935. To me this is the scariest problem in the world. Alas, I was beaten to the punch by Newt Gingrich here and at length here. Now Newt and I don't always agree, but I've always thought he was a smart guy with interesting things to say. He says:

Indeed, the new Iranian President does not even require us to read a book like Mein Kampf to understand how serious he is. He enthusiastically makes speeches proclaiming to the world his commitment to genocidal annihilation of another nation. Furthermore his senior foreign policy leader has endorsed his vicious threats.
Meanwhile the civilized world wrings its hands and the United Nations acts with contemptible weakness.

[T]he combination of two elements--the virulence of the ideology of Iran’s current regime and advanced military capabilities it is working energetically to acquire--when added to Iran’s inherent endowment--its strategic location, natural resources, population, and proximity to the vital resources of other nations in the region and the seaways through which these sources reach the rest of the world--poses a threat of such scope and magnitude which leave us with no choice but to take it with the utmost seriousness. We must prepare and take actions of the same intensity and seriousness as the threat.

I feel there's going to be a Munich moment, similar to when Britain chose to appease Hitler rather than confront him. I see the new Iranian leadership as pure evil, and the US is not in a strategically ideal position. Russia and China are acting in their economic self-interest instead of the world's best interest by not denouncing and distancing from Ahmadinejad when he claims the Holocaust didn't happen, Israel should be destroyed, or other incendiary rubbish of that ilk.

The Munich moment was a point of inflection for the Third Reich that allowed them to proceed unabated with their plans until finally the conquest of Poland was too much. A point of inflection with Iran is nearing, I don't know when, but the consequencing will be staggering.