IRAN WON'T GIVE IN – AT 11:04 A.M. ET:  As if we ever expected it.  New, severe sanctions on the Iranians have been in place for a week.  Iran is simply doing what it always does, acting defiant and refusing any compromise on its nuclear program.  It also is working to get around the sanctions, and may succeed.  From Reuters:

DUBAI - Iran has reached agreements with European refiners to sell some of its oil through a private consortium, an official said on Saturday, a move designed to circumvent sanctions intended to put pressure on Tehran to halt its disputed nuclear program.

The head of the oil products exporters' union said the agreement between the exporters' union, Iran's central bank, and the oil ministry would get round a European Union ban on shipping insurance for tankers carrying Iranian oil, though he gave few details and did not name the refiners involved.

The EU put into effect a ban on the importation, purchase, or shipping of Iranian oil on July 1, and the Islamic Republic will see its oil exports fall by more than 50 percent this month from last year's regular levels, costing it billions of dollars a month in revenue.

"There have been discussions with European refiners, and a final agreement has even been reached," said Hassan Khosrojerdi, the exporters' union head, according to Iran's Mehr News Agency.

"In accordance with the agreement, it is planned that 20 percent of Iran's oil exports will go through this private consortium."

COMMENT:  What will the West's response be?  If history is any guide, its response will be a "study" or "consultations," that will take us through the American presidential election.

So far, nothing has worked to stop, or even slow, the Iranian nuclear program.  And the Iranians do not appear to believe that we have a credible military threat.  At the current rate, Iran will eventually have the nuclear weapon, or at least an absolute capacity to build it and make it work.  That will change the power structure in the region, dramatically reduce American influence even further, and raise the nightmare scenario of an atomic bomb smuggled into an American harbor in the hold of a merchant ship.

We are making about the same level of progress against Iran as we made against Nazi Germany in the late 1930s.

July 7, 2012