President Bush has stepped up the criticism of Iran in the past months. In fact, in the Petraeus hearings and in Bush’s latest speech about Iraq, Iran has emerged as one of the primary reasons why the U.S. cannot leave Iraq immediately:

“If we were to be driven out of Iraq, extremists of all strains would be emboldened,” Bush said. “Iran would benefit from the chaos and would be encouraged in its efforts to gain nuclear weapons and dominate the region.”

When India and Pakistan tested nuclear weapons (not power plants, weapons) in 1998, they were both pretty much welcomed into the nuclear club. There was no talk of bombing India or Pakistan, and in fact the U.S. entered into a deal with India in 2005 which lifted the moratorium on nuclear trade between the two countries, allowing India to expand its nuclear energy program with U.S. backing. This was a complete reversal of the previous U.S. policy to cut off states that acquired nuclear weapons without approval.