The sound of one hand clapping

  If you're old enough to remember the Vietnam war then you may remember the anti-war slogan "What if they had a war and nobody came". Obviously, if war is declared but no one shows up to fight it you'd have no war. What happens if you have a war and one side doesn't show up, just pretends it isn't happening?
   Over the past 35 years Iran has been at war with the United States, and the U.S. has yet to show up. Taking over our embassy in Tehran and holding its staff hostage for over a year in 1979, and 1980 was an act of war in itself. Spilling the blood of our soldiers in Lebenon, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, as Iran has done or caused to be done, drives home the point, but no one on this side of the conflict is listening. There are lots of reasons to just let Iran do all the fighting, it's not necessarily cowardice alone that keeps us from joining in, but eventually we will be forced to the to face the plain facts. History teaches that conflict forestalled is not made any easier. Delaying the inevitable just ensures the inevitable will have a bigger bite. The treaty just signed between Iran and the United States and others to lift economic sanctions in return for an inspection regime of their nuclear arms program will not postpone either the Iranian nuclear bomb or full scale war between us. It only takes sanctions off the table ; the most effective tool available to limit their influence in the region and the grip of the ruling Islamist party at home. In other words it brings us closer to bilateral warfare, and further from any hope of avoiding that.