Ugly.

"...Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on a two-day visit to Syria, was holding a "terrorism summit" with President Bashar al-Assad.

During his visit to Damascus, Ahmadinejad pledged support for militant Palestinian factions at a meeting with their leaders on Friday, a Palestinian group said. Leaders from Islamic Jihad and Hamas were present.

Hamas, which is also sworn to Israel's destruction, is expected to make a strong showing against Abbas's Fatah movement in the election."

This from reuters.

There was a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, Israel last week. Islamic Jihad, which (like Hamas) is sworn to Israel's destruction, claimed responsibility. The President of Iran just met with members of both terrorist groups, pledging his support. So not only has Ahmedinejad outright called for the eradication of Israel, but he has publicly claimed support for terrorist groups with that very goal.

Could you imagine our response if Ahmedinejad called for the destruction of the USA and met with Osama bin Laden a month later? Israel clearly would be morally justified in a military strike against Iran, which it seems that they are preparing. I'm convinced that we should help them, if not do it by ourselves. It is a dilemma; I don't want to see the US get involved in hostilities with another Islamic country; our reputation is bad enough. However, just because we've recently made mistakes in foreign policy does not mean that we should ignore the next real threat that comes along.

In a related story, Moqtada al Sadr pledged his support for Iran in the event of a US attack. Al Sadr is a Shia religious leader who led an uprising against the US a couple years ago; he commands a large militia. It would appear that our hands are tied with regards to Iran, because if we attack Iran, al Sadr will launch attacks on US forces.

I still say we attack Iran if it comes to that, though. Al Sadr is not very senior and could be contained by other Shia political and/or religious leaders (Sistani). We can simply tell the Shia: if al Sadr launches an uprising then the US will withdraw all of its troops from Iraq. The Shia know that if that happened, their new government would be eaten alive by the Sunni rebels, so it would be in their best interest to contain al Sadr.