Danielle Pletka, head of the American Enterprise Institute's (AEI) foreign policy shop. "The biggest problem for the United States is not Iran getting a nuclear weapon and testing it, it's Iran getting a nuclear weapon and not using it. Because the second that they have one and they don't do anything bad, all of the naysayers are going to come back and say, "See, we told you Iran is a responsible power. We told you Iran wasn't getting nuclear weapons in order to use them immediately." ... And they will eventually define Iran with nuclear weapons as not a problem."

Why did President Obama refuse to support the demonstrators in Iran in 2009, but supported the "Arab Spring" in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere more recently?

Are Washington and Tehran headed for a showdown? For much of the past decade, conventional wisdom has held that Iran s dogged pursuit of a nuclear capability - carried out in spite of mounting pressure from the international community - will ultimately become a casus belli for Washington.

Since the "Arab Spring" began four months ago in Tunisia, U.S. media have focused constantly and generally optimistically on the turmoil in the Middle East. Unfortunately, the rising threat of an Iranian Winter 'nuclear or otherwise' is likely to outlast and overshadow any Arab Spring.