Obama's speech in Cairo yesterday...

...was outstanding for so many reasons. If nothing else, the image of an African-American president with the middle name "Hussein," who spent part of his upbringing in a Muslim country, who's father came from a Muslim background in Kenya, who's married to a woman who is the descendant of slaves, speaking to the Muslim world from an Arab capital, was truly historic. He also tried to

"...speak the truth as best I can..." and said,

"...I am convinced that in order to move forward, we must say openly to each other the things we hold in our hearts and that too often are said only behind closed doors."

Amen.

And yet (you knew there had to be an "and yet"), there was one truth that he and everyone else seems to be unable to face up to (at least in public). And that is that Iran is going to get nuclear weapons, there's nothing that we or anyone else can do about it, and furthermore, it's unrealistic to think otherwise.

Put yourself in Iran's place for a minute. First of all, they live in a dangerous neighborhood. America invaded and has troops in the two countries immediately to the east and west. India, Pakistan, Russia, and Israel all have nuclear weapons, and Turkey is probably not too far behind. How could they not want nuclear weapons? And what's more, how could we prevent them from getting them? From everything I've read it would be extremely difficult to take out all the sites, not to mention the collateral damage to civilians and the opinion in the Arab street.

Why not just admit the truth? Just as we couldn't prevent the Soviets or the Chinese from getting nuclear weapons during the Cold War, we probably can't prevent the Iranians from getting them now. And just as we learned to live with the Soviets and the Chinese having nuclear weapons, we can probably survive having Iran as a nuclear power. Who knows? Maybe it will make them a more responsible actor on the world stage, not less.