The deadline set by the UN Security Council for Iran to cease uranium enrichment expires tonight.  Iran will not comply, that much is clear.  The rest is, well, foggy.  Is it the fog of impending war, or fog of some other kind?  Two illuminating interviews ran this afternoon on NPR’s "Fresh Air."  One, with Joseph Cirincione of the Center for American Progress, afforded some historical perspective on the US involvement in Iran–beginning with the regime change accomplished in 1953 by the CIA overthrow of the democratically elected socialist Mossadegh and the installation of Shah Reza Pahlevi on the "peacock throne."  Did you know that the Shah got all manner of support and encouragement for the development of nuclear power, even after the Shah’s secret pursuit of nuclear weaponry became known?  I didn’t–but the Iranians do.  That, as Cirincione explains, is part of the reason why Iranians tend to support Ahmadinejad on the nuclear issue in spite of his evident faults.  It’s called "nationalism."  A powerful human impulse, more so even than the one toward "Islamo-fascism."   

Cirincione also gives us insight into the conflict now dividing top Republicans.  One faction, which might be called "the NeoRealists," knows that the Iraq mess has to be faced, and that it limits rather than expands US options in the region.  (James Baker, consigliere to the Bush family, has enlisted a bipartisan panel (the "Iraq Study Group") that is busy putting together a salvage policy on Iraq.  Baker, naturally, has undertaken this with a view toward neutralizing the botched war as an issue that can hurt Republican candidates.)  The other faction used to enjoy being known–however wrongly–as NeoConservative.  Whereas the NeoRealists can tell the difference between nationalism and fascism, the thinkers formerly known as NeoConservative can’t, or won’t.  They want to play Churchill to the Democrats’ Chamberlain–Hitler or no Hitler.

Terry Gross’s companion interview with Michael Ledeen, tenant of the "Freedom" Chair at the American Enterprise Institute, confirms just about all of what Cirincone is concerned about.  According to Ledeen, Iran has been attacking the United States for the last 27 years (when Terry Gross asks him what he means by "attacking"–does he mean 9/11?–there is thoughtful silence).  Ledeen scolds the Bush Administration for dithering over Iran for six years instead of doing the virtuous thing–"virtuous" meaning manly, not maidenly, in his Straussian idiolect.  The only realistic option left now is–yes, you got it–regime change!  Speaking of woosie-ward lingustic creep, Ledeen wonders how this "NeoConservative" canard got started.  He gladly disavows the "conservative" in "NeoCon," and gushes that he’s always been a (Neo)Revolutionary.  "Always!"  ("Tenured radical" had already been assigned.)

Meanwhile, the White House discloses that, now that Katrina is mission accompli, the President will be stumping the country to warn us again of the growing threat of Islamo-fascism.  "We are safer, but at increasing risk," as it were.  If this is any indication, the NeoRealists have failed in the struggle to control midterm election strategy.  Whether they have any control over war policy remains foggy.