This is a tough issue. When the United Nations was founded, Americans had an irrational hope that it would represent the united voice of a liberal-democratic will. Of course, it never has; instead, it has served as an excuse for dithering and talking, and did so long before any of us ever heard of Barack Obama.

Unilateral action by the United States has many pitfalls. Even governments that privately applaud it will publicly condemn it. It strikes me, moreover, as an exercise in wishful thinking to think that the Israelis will do the dirty work for us. It seems very doubtful that they have the capability.

We know that even we cannot wipe out Iran’s nuclear capability with one “surgical stroke.” What we can do is inflict unacceptable damage on that country and threaten to inflict more. Inevitably it would be fairly indiscriminate despite the best of intentions.

All this takes a strong stomach and a capacity for ruthlessness that the democratic West no longer possesses. What we are likely to see is a replay of the Carter dithering that led to the overthrow of the Shah in the first place. (Sure, he was a despot, but he also was a modernizer. By Iranian standards, he was more like Franklin Delano Roosevelt than Adolf Hitler.)

We also have behind us inaction re the Pakistani nuclear development program, the results of which were sold around the world by A. Q. Kahn.

Those are the precedents. Look for more of the same.

And fear for the future.