[BluffTHIS!]

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That Iran wishes to see regimes to its liking spread to other countries is important. Accurately assessing what it is doing to bring this about is also important. Ignoring other causes of bad things in the world, as we often did during the Cold War, can lead to tragedy.

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andy,

This is obviously true, i.e. that no matter how profound a threat posed by a certain state or group, we can't afford to ignore other ones that may become larger problems later. So what is key is determining how serious a threat Iran is right now and thus what priority should be placed on dealing with it (and you really haven't laid out an argument that the administration's assessment of the Iranian threat is wrong per se).

Chuck Norris (yes I will take some kidding for using something he said no doubt), in his book The Secret Power Within, based heavily on his martial arts knowledge and expertise, elucidated a principle which I believe to be applicable to any geo-stategic considerations for our nation. That principle if I can recall approximately the right wording is, "go to meet those who attack first". That is, when faced with multiple threats deal with the one closest to you.

Applying that, I cannot see how there is a more pressing or close threat than Islamic terrorism in all its facets, which includes Iranian backing for terrorist organizations like Hezbollah, and the extreme and grave threat that could be posed by Iran acquiring nuclear weapons and either providing some to a terrorist group, or in using same to shield itself from conventional retaliation for its support of terrorism or its own military actions against other states. And as serious a threat as North Korea might pose now, it is not as "ripe" as that posed by Iran. Iran simply is the point man of a squad of various threats, and you take out the point man first.