Republican and Democratic senators warned Tuesday against a drift toward war with an emboldened Iran and suggested the Bush administration was missing a chance to engage its longtime adversary in potentially helpful talks over next-door Iraq.For the record, I am very glad that our U.S. Senate is serving their proper, Constitutionally-authorized duty to check the president's power to make war. By doing so they are acting exactly as the Framers of our government wanted them to. Our Founders, in their great wisdom, granted Congress alone the power to declare war. Beside that basic fact is the obvious war-weariness we are all experiencing. Our Senate should be applauded for doing all in their power to make sure we do all everything possible to avoid another war.
These great statesmen and stateswomen are privy to much more information than any of us. They are well educated, intelligent, driven, and are generally high-quality people. Were they not so they would not have risen to their present rank. I hold all of them (even the ones with whom I vehemently disagree) in very high regard. In this case I encourage them to continue to push for every and any diplomatic solution that is possible.
Having said all that I must ask this question: what is wrong with them?
Think for one moment about Iran. What images come to mind? What terms do you associate with them? Do you think things like "reasonable"? How about "fair-minded"? Maybe "helpful"? Can we look to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as an example of benevolence just waiting to be invited into the fold so that he can offer assistance?
If Iran is willing to sit down and talk, great. Let's talk. If they are willing to help, great. Let them help. But are we ignorant? Are we blind? How many times must Iran poke us in the eye before we realize they are not willing to "help". Their goals are diametrically opposed to ours. They call us "The Great Satan". They call us "The Great Oppressor". They demonize everything we do. They openly state their desire to wipe Israel off the map. Have they not learned who we are dealing with?(If you missed Glenn Beck's special on how propaganda is used to indoctrinate people in the Middle East to hate America, I encourage you to check out at least this clip).Am I arguing that we go to war with Iran? Absolutely not. I can't make this clear enough: such a war would be awful and must be avoided at all costs.
The question I am driving at is this: why must we put our head in the sand and/or play some sort of political/rhetorical game to pretend like Iran is just on the edge of their seat, dying to help us solve the violence in Iraq? I truly hope that none of our Senators actually believe that. Such a person does not seem to be in touch with the reality of the Middle East. If a Senator implies such a thing, this is one of those rare times that I truly hope he/she is just being a partisan political hack, trying to cut down the President for "not talking to Iran". The only other option is that such a person has deluded him/herself into believing in a dream world where war is always avoidable.
Are we destined for war with Iran? I both think and hope that we are not. However, it is foolish to think that avoiding such a war is entirely within our control. Could we avoid such a war no matter what? Yes. Should we avoid a war no matter what? Wherever possible. But war takes two to tango--and so does peace. On it's current pace Iran has been described as "emboldened" about a billion times in the past several months. They are pretty clearly encouraging, supporting, and supplying the insurgency in Iraq. They are not going to be "helpful"; they desire our destruction. If they want war with the U.S., they can make it.
May our Senators do everything in their power to ensure that conflict is avoided wherever it can be avoided. But may we not be so foolish and arrogant as to think that such a decision is wholly ours.
2 comments:
Anyone who says that 20K more US troops should put their lives at risk in order to "give this plan a chance" should also be willing to talk to Iran. Maybe the chances that it will work are slim, but it is at least worth a try. It carries much lower risk than an escalation of the war. The Baker-Hamilton group thinks we should talk with them and I wouldn't consider them to be ignorant about the way the mideast works. No one is saying that engaging Iran is guaranteed to work. That's some kind of straw man that the Right has dreamed up. There's no good reason not to talk to our enemies.
Agreed, danny. Two points: 1) Yes, we should talk, but our approach needs to be realistic. We need to understand how much these people hate us, and approach our talks as such. Both parties in Congress seem to be using Iran's escalation of hostilities to score political points with the American public, creating the false impression that Iran is not really that dangerous, and would be more than willing to help if 43 would just invite Ahmadinejad for a cup of coffee. 2) That is the very reason I called the post "We Just Don't Get It". I think we underestimate/don't fully comprehend the mindset of those in the Middle East. We can sit down and talk all day long. At the end of the day they want destruction of the West's way of life. I want to talk until we are blue in the face, but the rhetoric coming out of both parties in Congress is becoming increasingly unrealistic in terms of what we think can be achieved diplomatically. Not that we shouldn't try, just that we shouldn't build up the false impression that these people think, act, and reason like Westerners. We, as a society--and yes, even Baker-Hamilton--do not fully appreciate the Middle East worldview.
p.s. danny, sorry if your comments are taking a while to get up, but I had to turn on the "moderate comments" feature. All of a sudden I was getting a bunch of spam comments and vulgarity/comment vandalism. Unfortunate, but until I find a better way to make sure the comments are for real, this is what I've got.
Post a Comment