Sanctions may deter Iran's nuclear campaign

Heritage foundation Senior fellow Peter Brookes predicted that Iran will achieve the potential for a nuclear breakout by next year.

"I think what the nuclear weapon does for Iran is it gives them a freedom of action that we will have little control over," said Brookes.

James Phillips, Senior Research Fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs, is in agreement regarding the danger posed by a nuclear armed Iran, and warned that diplomacy with between the nation and the U.S. may not be an acceptable deterrent.

"Iran has strongly resisted...international efforts to pressure it to end it's nuclear weapons program, and this diplomatic route would be more promising if the Iranian regime was motivated primarily by national interests and the welfare of the Iranian people," said Phillips.

"However it is a revolutionary Islamist regime that is more interested in preserving its power and spreading its Islamist revolution."

Phillips said that holding a discussion with Iran may in fact carry a risk, and claimed that it may give Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a boost in the next election and a sense of legitimacy on the world stage. Phillips further warned that it would have the added effect of disheartening Iranian opposition groups.

As far as solutions go, Gary Milhollin; publisher of Iran Watch, suggests that international sanctions should be put on Iran. Currently, Millholin claims there are few incentives for Iran to halt their programs and negotiate. Placing Iran's economy in distress will apparently create such an incentive.

"We have to bear in mind that nuclear weapons don't make a successful country. The Iranians have lots of problems they will probably have in the future...and they're going to get a lot worse if the world can succeed in imposing sanctions on the Iranians, and I mean meaningful sanctions," said Milhollin.

"I think meaningful, important, onerous sanctions are the only long term threat to the regime."

Conservatives hope for power in 2010

The Heritage Foundation hosted a discussion with Michael Medved about his thoughts on the major falsities surrounding America as developed in his book "The Ten Big Lies about America". Medved focused on three of his ten lies beginning with the idea that the one solution for economic downturns is to respond with aggressive government programs. Medved singled-out FDR and the New Deal as a perfect example for failure in terms of economic recovery. He believes that the new Obama administration will not "waste a crisis" and will behave in an extremely Rooseveltian capacity.

The second lie Medved specified was that the United States is an imperialist power and a constant threat to world peace. The alleged past of isolationism and pacifism that is believed to have existed at some point in American history is a fabrication that "never existed", said Medved. He continued to deny America's imperialist tendencies by pointing out that Canada is still "allowed to exist" almost undefended against our borders.

The final lie believed to distort America's political dialogue is that America is in a state of "irreversible moral decline." Medved says that every generation since the inception of America has believed they were the worst generation in the history of the world. However, conservatives can be reassured and encouraged by the passing of legislation like California's Proposition 8 that created an amendment to ban same-sex marriage in the state, as opposed to the discouragement they felt with the overwhelming support for Democrats.

No matter what, Medved called himself a "tremendous optimist even at the age of the dawn of Obama". He encouraged the conservative tone of the discussion by invoking the memory of Bill Clinton's 1992 election. A similar sense of hope and change was in the air at the turn of that election, and by 1994 the Republicans had gained more seats (55 in the House of Representatives) than had ever been gained before in one election. Medved says this brings hope to the Republican Party for the possibilities in 2010.

Today at Talk Radio News Service

The Washington bureau is covering a discussion on "Medvedev's Challenges in Governing Putin's Russia: What a New American President Should Know" at the Woodrow Wilson Center, a presentation on the 2009 Hunger Report on "Global Development: Charting a New Course" with Bread for the World, and a discussion on "The Big Lies about America: Combating Destructive Distortions about Our Nation" at the Heritage Foundation

Pentagon Correspondent S. Dawn Casey will be attending briefing at the Pentagon from Iraq. The Washington bureau will also be covering the Council on Foreign Relations' conference call on their week-long visit to Afghanistan and a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities conference call to discuss the economic downturn's potential impact on poverty and "deep poverty" in the United States.

Continuity from Bush administration to new president assured

The Heritage Foundation held a discussion about the post-Bush transition period in response to Senator and Vice Presidential nominee Joe Biden's remarks expecting a crisis to occur within the first six months of an Obama administration. Giving their expert opinions were Dr. James Carafano and Lisa Curtis of the Heritage Foundation, and Clark Ervin of the Aspen Institute who was also the first Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security.

Carafano began the discussion by expressing that he "[doesn't] actually think the government is particularly vulnerable in this transition period." The only continuity problems that may occur, he said, will be in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) if an Obama administration comes to power. He continued with the thought that DHS would be a difficultly for the Democrats because it was created since they were last in power, so "they haven't been there" before.

Lisa Curtis is a Senior Research Fellow of the Asian Studies Center and contextualized the discussion by focusing on recent Afghan-Pakistan relations. She believes that lately the Taliban has been "emboldened" in the tribal areas of Pakistan where they have become de facto rulers and they are spreading into Afghanistan. The United States' response to this, she said, must be an increase in troops to the region because America must gain support of the local populations there to have any sway over the Taliban.

Clark Ervin concluded the discussion with a direct dismissal of Carafano's belief that the transition period is not a time of vulnerability. He called the transition a "heightened threat period" that needed to "close security gaps" that have been created since Sept. 11. Ervin said that another attack on American soil, particularly in regards to the current economic crisis, "would be even greater with a new attack", especially since America is already burdened by two wars.

Despite their differences, all three panelists agreed that the Bush administration was preparing to turnover their work of the past eight years and Ervin expected "joint table topics of the outgoing Bush team and the new incoming team."

Voter fraud and the threat to American democracy

The Heritage Foundation hosted John Fund, author of the new book "Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy." John Fund is a member of the Wall Street Journal's Editorial Board and discussed recent voter fraud and voter suppression allegations and their effect on the upcoming election.

Fund began the talk describing the hypothetical scenario of the election resulting in a tie which would take the decision away from the voters "and put it into the hands of courts." Fund argued that this scenario undermines the legitimacy of the electoral system as well as of the new President. America "needs the next president to take office with full legitimacy." The discussion highlighted the concept that if Americans are seeing voter fraud and suppression become more prevalent before the election, it may be a clue to the problems that will take place on November 4.