March 27, 2007 | By Nathaniel Ward

Will Britain strike Iran?

Heritage’s Tim Kane appears on CNBC's “Power Lunch” to discuss the latest Index of Economic Freedom. Click to watch.

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Tensions remain high after Iranian agents last week captured 15 British sailors. Prime Minister Tony Blair has demanded the release of the hostages and has stepped up diplomatic pressure on the radical regime.

Prime Minister Blair said today that it’s “not acceptable” to “end up negotiating over hostages.”

The stakes are very high. Speaking on the Fox News Channel, Heritage Foundation foreign policy expert Nile Gardiner predicts that Britain will engage in a “gradual military buildup in alliance with the United States in order to carry out a possible military action against the Iranians if they do not back down.”

Click here to watch Nile Gardiner’s Fox News appearance (MPG format).

But while world leaders remain incensed at Iran’s latest outrage, Gardiner, the director of Heritage’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, notes that there has been “deafening silence at the United Nations.”

“Once again, we are seeing the U.N. appeasing a brutal totalitarian regime that has carried out an act of war against a U.N. Security Council member, Great Britain,” Gardiner says.

Steven Groves, the Bernard and Barbara Lomas Fellow in the Thatcher Center, proposes that America adopt a new strategy to undermine the mullahs’ regime in Iran. The United States should push for constitutional reforms in Iran to limit the power of the radical clerics, he says. He also suggests that America increase pressure on the regime through strengthened financial blocks, a public diplomacy campaign to win over the Iranian people, and other measures.

A good month for Peter Brookes

March has been good to Heritage foreign policy expert Peter Brookes.

Click here to read more about his expanded influence and new honors.

Heritage explains economic freedom

Promoting economic freedom is one of The Heritage Foundation’s most important missions. That mission was given a boost today when Heritage’s Tim Kane traveled to the CNBC television studios to film an in-depth segment on The Index of Economic Freedom, which he edits in his role as director of the Center for International Trade and Economics.

Click here to watch Heritage’s Tim Kane on CNBC’s “Power Lunch.” (MPG format)

On the program, Kane discussed key metrics on global economic freedom culled from the Index, which is a collaboration between The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal.

Click here for more on the 2007 Index.

The importance of family II

A new study summarized by Heritage’s FamilyFacts.org serves as yet another refutation of the liberal crusade to diminish the importance of traditional families. “Adolescents in intact families,” the website reports, “were less likely to be exposed to domestic violence than those not living with both biological parents, according to a 2002 study of the experiences of 133,000 Minnesota youths.”

FamilyFacts.org also notes that urban youth in intact families are less likely to belong to gangs and that children in two-parent families are less likely to commit juvenile offenses.

In other news

• The Senate today passed a bill to fund the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan—a bill loaded down with wasteful spending and unconstitutional restraints on commanders in the field.
• President Bush expressed his commitment to the Constitution and fiscal restraint when he said this morning that “I’ll veto a bill that restricts our commanders on the ground in Iraq, a bill that doesn't fund our troops, a bill that’s got too much spending on it.”
• The editors at The New York Times have hit a new low, declaring that “victory is no longer an option in Iraq, if it ever was.”
• Liberals in Congress have once again introduced the Equal Rights Amendment. The amendment, which would prohibit government discrimination based on sex, passed Congress in 1972, but only 35 of the required 38 states ratified it before the 1982 deadine. Activists hope to use the amendment to strike down traditional marriage and other institutions.
• Former Vice President Al Gore will receive an International Emmy Award for his scaremongering on global warming.
• Continued failures within Britain’s socialist National Health Service have forced millions of dental patients to forgo treatment or turn to other, costlier alternatives.

Coming up at Heritage

To attend the following Heritage Foundation events, RSVP at Heritage’s events website. Or you can watch these events live online at Heritage.org.  All times are Eastern.

• On Wednesday, April 5 at 9:45 a.m., Heritage will host a series of panel discussions on the relationship between Russia and the United States.
• On Wednesday, April 18 at 6:00 p.m., Steven Hayward of the American Enterprise Institute will present a special screening of his new documentary, An Inconvenient Truth...or Convenient Fiction: Sorting Out Sense from Nonsense on Global Warming. To attend, please RSVP to Cindy Chin at the Pacific Research Institute.

Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.

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