Sarah Palin, the same who recently called Australian citizen Julian Assange un-American and decried his release of US embassy cables now uses them to challenge Obama. Palin, in a recent Op/Ed, quotes from leaked embassy cables to harangue the president for allowing Iran to develop its enrichment program and for endorsing non ‘crippling’ UN sanctions.

Iran continues to defy the international community in its drive to acquire nuclear weapons. Arab leaders in the region rightly fear a nuclear-armed Iran. We suspected this before, but now we know for sure because of leaked diplomatic cables. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia “frequently exhorted the U.S. to attack Iran to put an end to its nuclear weapons program,” according to these communications. Officials from Jordan said the Iranian nuclear program should be stopped by any means necessary. Officials from the United Arab Emirates and Egypt saw Iran as evil, an “existential threat” and a sponsor of terrorism. If Iran isn’t stopped from obtaining nuclear weapons, it could trigger a regional nuclear arms race in which these countries would seek their own nuclear weapons to protect themselves.

Perhaps Palin can see Iran from her house but after insisting on crippling sanctions she fleshes out the rest of her rant with the usual platitudes saying we should stand with the brave mothers of Iran. (Knowing we are out there will make sanctions that much easier on hungry Iranian moms and babies?).

Thrown in for good measure are words like “diplomacy”, and “things such as radio broadcasting”, and “the rightness of the ideals of liberty and justice”. She tops off her foreign policy strategy for dealing with Iran with a reference to Reagan and the “evil empire”.

I feel safer already