With the successful launching of a solid-propellant rocket capable of traveling 1,200 to 1,500 miles, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad provides us all with the opportunity to talk about something other than banks, bailouts, and ballooning deficits.

“It’s the economy stupid” loses traction in the face of Ahmadinejad’s “Israel must be wiped off the map.”

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said, “Iran is at a bit of a crossroads. They have a choice to make. They can either continue on this path of continued destabilization of the region or they can decide that they want to pursue relationships with the countries in the region and the United States that are more normalized.”

To continue Whitman’s use of the metaphor, if Iran is at a crossroads, then so is the United States, for crossroads can quickly escalate into crosshairs.

Undersecretary of Defense Michele Flournoy said, “There are U.N. Security Council resolutions in place that . . . thwart that kind of activity, so I do think that it poses a security threat to the region and that we will have to, probably, to deal with it.”

Probably?

For more on the world’s dangerously wobbling nuclear equilibrium, be sure to read Alisa Harris’ “Nuclear options.”