Gordon, I think you’re wrong about Thomas Friedman. Despite my massive disagreements with Friedman on other subjects, I do think it’s productive to focus on Iran as our opponent in a new Cold War. (In fact, I advanced a similar thesis over a year ago.)

The bottom line is that Iran is operating on the very same logic that the Soviets did: Expand your country’s power through (a) a totalizing ideology that rejects freedom; (b) massively upgrading your military; (c) fighting proxy wars against America and its allies; (d) technological advancement; (e) justifying the suffering of your people by pointing to the enemy as the real cause–you get the point.

I’m not saying–and neither is Friedman–that Iran can or will ever be a threat of the magnitude that the Soviet Union was, even if it gets nuclear weapons. That’s just silly. What I am saying is that it’s useless to assume that negotiation or appeasement will ever help, and we shouldn’t just wait for Iran to keep accumulating power until it’s stronger and more belligerent.