Has Iran Crossed The Line?

Today we have an excellent guest post from Alisha Venetis.  Alisha Venetis is co-founder of www.thePrepRoom.net; an online store specializing in emergency preparedness supplies.  She writes for Smart Girl Nation, as well as other conservative blogs, where she reports on world politics, domestic and global economics and the potentially negative ramifications they may have on America.

-----

The line in the sand for Iran is becoming more clear as dates are now being discussed about a possible Israeli strike. Recently, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, said that the world is increasingly ready to strike Iran if the sanctions do not work. A recent column in the Washington Post has even alluded that Defense Secretary for the United States, Leon Panetta, has gone as far to say that he believes there is a "strong likelihood" that Israel will attack in April, May or June.

It is believed that Iran has enough enriched uranium to produce four rudimentary bombs in the very near future and is well on their way to crossing the "red line drawn" by the US. If and when this happens, the US has made it clear that all options, including a military strike, are on the table.

What exactly constitutes Iran crossing the line? Well, that depends on whether you're talking to Iran, Israel or the U.S. The US is presently trying to persuade Israel of hold off on a strike against Iran, in order to allow enough time to see if the recent sanctions imposed against them will have achieved their intended goal.

The US is arguing that a strike against Iran will potentially lead to the Iranian regime becoming more aggressive against Israel, and thus making it even less secure. Since Israel does not have the military capacity to strike Iran's nuclear bunkers underground (unlike the United States), Israel is anticipating the crossing of the line to occur as early as Spring.

Even if Israel acts alone, those of us living in the U.S. will not be unaffected. We experienced the rumblings of this with the Libyan situation. For starters, the price of oil will rise, wreaking havoc on our already fragile economy. As many have alluded, this is one of the toughest foreign policy decisions that will be made. These are historical times that we are living in.