This was the first thought that popped into my head this morning upon reading the BBC’s report about Israel’s discovery that the Islamic Republic of Iran is paying the Islamic terrorists of Hamas to keep in captivity Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier they kidnapped during a cross border-raid in June.

It reminded me, yet again, of Michael’s admonition, consistent over several years, that — whether we choose to acknowledge it or not — we are in a War Againt the Terror Masters in which all roads lead to Tehran. And it brought to mind Mario Loyola’s insightful post earlier this week, inspired by reading Lippmann, which argued that our “national security establishment, increasingly paralyzed by the government’s (and nation’s) general failure to understand the situation we’re in, is shaping Bush’s decision-making in the … direction of reflexive minimal measures to repair great disasters.”

Observe: Our State Department is trying to bribe the Iranians with a cornucopia of goodies — including spare parts assistance for its dilapidated airline industry — for the limited and unattainable end of getting them to give up their nuclear ambitions in a verifiable way. When they inevitably laugh at us, we respond by announcing that we are going to sell them the spare-parts anyway, as a “humanitarian” gesture. (That’ll show ‘em!)

Meanwhile, for their part, the Iranians threaten to annihilate our ally, Israel; foment a war by their forward militia, Hezbollah, against Israel; abet the Iraqi militias making war against U.S. and coalition forces; give safe-harbor to al Qaeda; and, now, prod Hamas to hold firm in its belligerence.

Drawing from Lippmann’s assessment of America’s pre-WWII insouciance, Mario concluded the other day, “we are yet again marching directly and perhaps inexorably towards great disasters, and once again, it doesn’t even seem to help that these disasters are clearly marked as such.” Amen.