I don't believe it will be us that starts the hostilities doc, but I do believe that we will end up backing the play of the one that does. Our concern for a nuclear Iran pales in comparison to that of some other countries.
I don't say its over, but the window of opportunity is definitely shrinking and realistically we have only until the end of 2007 to take decisive action. Once we get into presidential election politics it will be impossible to do anything. It may be that the current actions of Rice vis a vis Iran are designed to buy us some time to prepare; but as the weeks and months go on, it seems to me that Bush is intent on fully completing the Iraq war and finishing up in Afghanistan(i.e., making sure the gains there remain solid) --or at least waiting until the midterm (2006) elections before doing anything about Iran. IMHO, that is enough of a legacy for any one man; but if he can remain steadfast about Iran and not permitting them to get nuclear weapons; it would be unquestionable historic.
Something clicked just a moment ago and it horrified me. I finally understood a strange part of human nature.
I found myself wishing that diplomacy would be exhausted; that Iran would finish the bomb as North Korea has. And Iran would develop into an aggressive and bold, powerful monster. They'd attack Israel; millions would die.
But the left would be proven wrong again.
America and Europe would have no choice but to repel Iran and remove its cancer, in a bloody and destructive war.
The world'd learn the same lesson over again, for a new generation. While it castigates us, the real evil grows. While it does nothing, the evil grows.
And then it strikes, and millions die, because the world chained its heroes.
But then I thought--all of this for a fantasy. A fantasy of rescue and of proving political enemies wrong.
I cannot wish for this, as a child would. Millions cannot die to prove leftists wrong. As much as I wish it, we must suffer the guilt and condemnation of the world in order to save it. And in quiet reflection, we can't even console ourselves of the sureness of having done the right thing.
But leftists are children. They wish for this every day. They wish that Iraqis and Americans die in order to punish Conservatives and neo-cons. Who are these people?
I can at least recognize my impulse to wish my enemies be wrong at the expense of lives is infantile and selfishly evil. Can they not? Are they mad? Do they ever introspect? Or just project?
I am willing to confront my own guilt, and rationally deal with it. Do they just project theirs upon the world? Is this the only way that they can achieve psychic balance?
Something is funny with the timestamps on posts. They are all out of order.
I'm not as pessimistic as you, Dr., even though I was surprised by the amazing non-reaction of my LLL friends and family to the atrocity of 9/11 and their incurable BDS Syndrome. However, this war has ONLY BEGUN.
Bush has been criticized for not ramping up the propaganda aspects of the war. That's probably a good thing, since people tire easily of hearing patriotic verbiage over and over, just as they do any other words. The patriotic/propaganda option still exists, however, as do the deadly weapons and special ops teams in place.
Nothing will shake the LLL because they are decadent. They don't understand the real world, and they don't try to learn about it. Fortunately, there are enough Americans and others who do understand.
It would be hard to justify attacking Iran if we didn't do our best to neutralize it (spay it) using diplomacy, sanctions, subversion, whatever.
Regarding pc, multiculturalism, and leftist environmentalism--the left has already OVERPLAYED its hand. I don't have proof, but I believe it. As far as supporting real environmentalism and sensible pc/multiculturalism--those are good things. We don't want to return to the days when white male Anglo-Saxon Protestants were the only people whose opinions were worth getting. I remember those days quite clearly, and could write long and detailed posts about them, but this is your blog, not mine, so I won't. 
The game isn't quite over.
I do not believe the civilized world will tolerate an Iran with nuclear weapons.
>>Nothing will shake the LLL because they are decadent.>>
No, they are the new communists. Remember when Khruschev banged his shoe on the table at the UN and shouted that "their (the Communists) grandchildren would bury our (the US's) grandchildren? We're at about that time. Their plan was in motion then, and we're seeing the fruit of it now. If we can just make it through the next 20 or so years, maybe we will have healed...
I'm with sigmund. I also don't believe the people are on board with the leftist defeatist agenda, or at least they aren't supporting it at the polls, which considering the media bombardment we all witness to, says something good about us as a people.
My long, well-thought out comment went into the ether.
All I got left is this.
Go Bush go!
I have no idea how my first comment ended up before that of SC&A when it was written after!
Something seems to be wrong with Haloscan comment time stamps. Hopefully it will straighten itself out. Sorry folks!
In a recent editorial in the "Michigan Daily" (a U of Michigan student rag, for those who don't know), the editor rants against the Iraq war. The editor claims to be a history major, but its clear from his editorial that he never studied the appeasement of Hitler from the 1930s. Of course, it figures his history profs at U-M are a bunch of left-wing loons like Juan Cole, so no doubt he'd never get anything like the truth in a history class there.
It's a good thing I don't read the Michigan Daily very often. If I did, I'd have to go and buy a pet bird!
I used to really wonder how so many folks in the 1930s went along with appeasement, and I still wonder as we're going through the same thing today. Then as now, you could have a *small* war sooner, or a *huge* war later. The appeasers apparently think they can get by with no war at all, but that's where they're wrong--there *will* be some kind of war. I prefer the small war, fought on our terms, and not a nuclear exchange where millions will die. I guess the only good part about a nuclear war is that there'll be a lot fewer lefties around afterwards!
Not "dormant" ,but rather camouflaged. Suek has it right. They analyzed our strengths and initiated a long term operation to promote weakness and weaklings(who, being very much aware of their own deficiencies,tend to protect their ricebowls). I think the conspirators misjudged the strength of our system though.They should have waited for another generation, but maybe they couldn't, because they are too close to retirement and they can't trust their influence persisting much longer. The old saw about fooling people comes to mind.........
The current political climate is scarily reminiscent of the climate in France in the late 1930s, which played in important role in the catastrophic defeat of that country.
Andre Maurois writes of his talk with Paul Reynaud (who had become Premier just before the German invasion) about Reynaud's feud with Daladier:
"Nevertheless," (Maurois) said, "Daladier is certainly a man who loves his country."
"Yes," Reynaud said, "I believe he desires the victory of France, but he desires my defeat even more."
We have a lot of people in the US today who desire President Bush's defeat more than they desire the victory of the U.S. and of civilization.
Wrong prognostications litter the historical record like confetti: Soviet takeover, Captialist collapse, Nazi/Fascist triumph, AIDS plague like the Black Death, etc. Consider the numerous miraculous American victories of record by Washington, Jackson, Lincoln's Federal Army; in WWII we had the Battle of Britain, Midway, and Normandy. Our ancestors had great respect for Providence and her faithful companion, Necessity.
The game is far from over, and it's nearly certain that Israel will not allow herself to be led into a new Holocaust. Israel will strike first with devastating force, and we'll be supporting her. Sure, many will die, but the cancer will be wiped out, and the patient (humanity) will survive intact.
Garry K. wrote: "I used to really wonder how so many folks in the 1930s went along with appeasement, and I still wonder as we're going through the same thing today."
The thing the appeasers had in their favor in the 30's was the memory of the carnage of WW I. However misguided they were, they were at least arguing from an understandable moral position.
The 'left' of today has no comparable argument. I remain convinced that America does not do wrong with the wars we fight, but rather the ones we don't (see also: Vietnam 1975.)
Millions cannot die to prove leftists wrong.
Shouldn't, or can't? I'd say they are already in the hundreds of millions range just up to right now.
Diablovision:
My long, well-thought out comment went into the ether.
I hate when that happens.
Dr. Sanity:
Funny you should mention political correctness and multiculturalism. Fjordman has an absolutely brilliant post at Gates of Vienna about precisely that:
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.co...revenge-
of.html
This is not to be missed. But it's long. Best pack a lunch.
> Millions cannot die to prove leftists wrong.
> Shouldn't, or can't? I'd say they are already in the hundreds of millions range just up to right now.
Not that anyone on the left has noticed that...
Hello Dr. Sanity:
Please don’t loose your patience with the Iraq War. We are so close to achieving our Nobel goals of freeing the Iraqis’ of tyranny and birthing a stable democratic nation based on liberty. Just as the United States was born in blood, so has the new Iraqi nation.
We are accomplishing this difficult task in spite of the meddling of outside characters such as Al Qaeda, Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.
I understand why the corrupt theologians that currently control Iran want a nuclear weapon. The only way they will survive is to make sure the world knows that they are convinced that they are doing god’s will and that the rest of us are not worthy and inconsequential in their scheme of things.
Frankly, Dr. Sanity, Bush is pursuing diplomatic relations simply to bide time and let the rest of the world grow more wary of Iran. Just remember as tough as the Iranians are, they were no better than Saddam was at the onset of Gulf War I. In fact, I’m confident that while they might be preparing for an American invasion; it will be found just how unprepared they really are. And some where in the Pentagon or wherever, our military is making serious preparations to topple Iran’s theocracy and restore the rightful rule of Iran to it’s citizens.
I really believe this. Don’t give up hope.
I went to U of Mich and no professor changed my mind. Books are more persuasive.
I also didn't really learn much about the world, gentle closed community that it is.
I've got a theory that everything comes down to imagination which like intelligence follows a bell curve.
Does psychology explain imagination? Can it be tested? Just wondering.
What I meant to say is "Conservatives should not let millions more die to prove leftism wrong, again."
> I went to U of Mich and no professor changed my mind. Books are more persuasive.
yes, Carol, but one thing universities like to do is make sure you don't read anything but the carefully concocted pablum which supports their ideas.
Look at the FIRE case with the librarian at OSU sued for "sexual harassment" because he recommended some books that represented non-liberal views for their "freshman recommended reading list".
In other words, they want to make sure you don't have time to read anything that would lead you away from their idiocy, and most students don't have the independence these days to stand up to the cattle drive.
I've noticed a substantial increase in the number of kids who will stand at a crosswalk with no contravening traffic and WAIT for permission from a dumbass *machine* to cross the street.
Can they say "Mooooooo"? I knew they could.
> What I meant to say is "Conservatives should not let millions more die to prove leftism wrong, again."
Granted, but, if you include Europe, Isolationists, and fence-sitters, there are a LOT more of them than Conservatives, so we may not have sufficient say to prevent it.
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