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In the Debate Over Iran, More Calls for a Tougher U.S. Stance
[Washington Post] Robin Wright - Fourteen months after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice offered to talk to Iran, the failure of carrot-and-stick diplomacy to block Tehran's nuclear and regional ambitions is producing a new drumbeat for bolder action, including the possible use of force. The drumbeats are also louder because of Iraq. Explosives that U.S. officials say come from Iran accounted for one-third of U.S. combat deaths last month in Iraq. "There's a sense of frustration with the strategy....The one clear alternative with some proponents is the bombing option," said Suzanne Maloney, a former Iran expert with the State Department and now a fellow at the Brookings Institution. "Deterring the Ayatollahs," a new publication by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, backs economic sanctions and diplomacy, but co-editors Patrick Clawson and Michael Eisenstadt also conclude that neither may work, and that deterring Iran once it develops a nuclear weapon will be "much more difficult than deterrence was during the Cold War." The Heritage Foundation's Web site has a section labeled "Iran: The Rising Threat," advocating aggressive diplomacy and tough sanctions with a willingness to use force to stave off Iran's becoming a nuclear power.