The Washington Post attempts to surrender to Iran’s nuclear capabilities, not realizing what they are really reporting is the fading hope of non-military solutions.

As Iran takes a step closer to developing nuclear capacity, President Bush finds his options ever more constricted. The Iranians seem unfazed by U.N. statements. The Russians and Chinese won’t go along with economic sanctions. And the generals at the Pentagon hate the idea of a military strike.

Nobody wants to use the military option. Just like no one wishes to use the death penalty. Most people would not want to carve open another person to remove a dying limb. But we do what we must. We do not want war or military actions. One thing some on the left share with Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein is the misunderstanding between ‘dislike’ and ‘inability’ or ‘unwillingness’. Many have misunderstood America’s distaste for violence and ability to do violence when called upon. It will not be the first time an enemy came to the wrong conclusion and ended up learning, the hard way, how good we are at doing things we would rather not do.

Some people cannot stomach the hard decisions:

Some administration officials have grown increasingly skeptical that a solution can be found, raising the prospect that, like North Korea before it, a second member of the trio of rogue states Bush once dubbed the “axis of evil” may ultimately develop a nuclear bomb over U.S. objections.

But that is the case in every population. If we were to be led by the squeamish we would not have doctors and surgeons. Very few people can face the rawness of the operating room, with everything on the line. So why should we be shocked there are those afraid to face another variation of removing a dangerous cancer?

And as Captain Ed points out, we don’t have a lot of time before this cancer becomes very, very deadly.