Comments on: Rock and a Hard Place

By: Ribald

Ribald — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 05:36:31 +0000

Nah. I used to think the Bush administration was dead set on Iran, but it became apparent that it was only the dream of only a few. Even the entrenched Pentagon bureaucracy acknowledges that Iran is a difficult and dangerous target to strike unilaterally, not least because the entire industrialized world could be affected if things went horribly wrong. The worst case scenario (for the US at least) would be economic sanctions. Not likely, but possible.

It wouldn’t do anything to reduce our financial difficulties either (Iraq and Afghanistan sure didn’t). To the extent that military production boosts the economy, it helps only to disguise the damage it causes. The boost only lasts as long as the war never stops, and in the meantime that money isn’t being spent on things that are actually worth spending money on.

However, Iran does make for a good political cakewalk. When the chips are down domestically, it’s usually time to trot out the Foreign Enemy to be lashed–verbally at least. The Republicans have been doing it all year long, in their own unique way.

By: joe

joe — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:05:42 +0000

I think the Summers/Geithner neo-liberal cabal want a hot war. It is the most effective way for them to get inflation to burn off US debt. Iran is as good a target as any other.

By: Ribald

Ribald — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:52:30 +0000

I think the Iranians want economic development and peace. This is probably why the Iranian government tends to speak of Israel and the US in unflattering language. How often have our own officials played up the possibility of a military strike (even acknowledging that the Strait of Hormuz could be blocked)? Israel likely dozens of nuclear missiles ready to launch at a moment’s notice, and Israel isn’t even a signatory to the Nuclear Arms Nonproliferation Treaty, as Iran is.

Iran hasn’t attacked anyone yet. Our intelligence agencies haven’t found an iota of evidence that Iran is planning any sort of military offensive (if they were, we’d have already bombed them, wouldn’t we?). As has been pointed out, the US has bombed and occupied two large countries on both sides of Iran, generally making a mess of things. I’m not saying the Iranian government is a model of civility, but they’re guilty of far less than our closest ally, and (historically speaking) ourselves.

In your own words: “At one point we were ruled by crazy people who expected to run through the Middle East while people prostrated themselves in love.”

I imagine part of the reason these crazy people were capable of ruling us was because we’re a little crazy ourselves. Paranoia.

By: Mark Hartzer

Mark Hartzer — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:54:05 +0000

“Do nothing and play for time.”

Absoluteamundo. Every other course of action leads to an escalation of tensions.