At the risk of shocking some, I do have liberal friends. In the Jewish community, shunning liberals can lead to a lonely existence.
A woman I went to college with is married to a staunch liberal. He is a good guy, and the other night I went out to dinner with them and their two children.
She is fairly apolitical, and when the kids got tired, she took them home. Her husband and I talked politics.
Naturally we disagreed about most issues.
He felt that the Iraq War was wrong, and I felt it was totally the right thing to do.
Yet the real difference came in our attitudes toward Iran. I feel that we should immediately turn Armageddonoijad’s palaces into a 50,000 hole golf course. He doesn’t.
When he tried to bring up the issue of sanctions, I pointed out that there will be no sanctions. It was not going to happen. Any sanctions that did pass that would be so watered down that they would be meaningless.
(I am already right on this point. President Obama wants to exempt Russia and China from sanctions. This turns the idea of sanctions on its head. Sanctions are dead.)
Many on the left claimed that they wanted sanctions because it was seen as a “middle ground” between doing nothing, and using military force. Now that sanctions have evaporated as a credible option (the left still refuses to admit this. Again, sanctions are dead.), the left has to either be open to force or truly do nothing.
(I would be willing to consider sanctions if there was any chance they would actually work. I know they don’t, so I choose force over impotence.)
At this point my friend offered up a rationale why doing nothing (not that he called it that) would be acceptable.
He believes that there is no way that Iran would attack Israel. Because Israel has nuclear weapons, an attack by Iran would lead to Israel obliterating Iran. Iran knows this. Therefore, any saber rattling by Iran is pure bluster. They are bluffing.
I have heard this argument many times. I don’t buy it. When the left tries to say the same about Saddam Hussein in Iraq, or North Korea, or other conflicts, I point out the situation is not analogous.
Saddam Hussein was a Muslim, but he was secular. He liked Cuban cigars and Frank Sinatra records. His top deputy Tariq Aziz was a Christian. The Hussein government was based on Marxism. It was a secular government. Religious Shiite Muslims were murdered because Saddam saw them as a threat. He feared Iran, and waged war with it because he believed they wanted to kill him. He was right.
Russia has nuclear weapons, but nobody of any sound mind believes that the Russians want to blow up the world. Ronald Reagan understood this. We knew that we did not want to die, and they knew they did not want to die. Once both sides realized that neither side wanted Armageddon, peace talks came quickly. Russia was crumbling, and they just wanted to appear as strong as America.
China has nuclear weapons, but they have zero interest in eliminating America. They want to kick our hides economically. China is the equivalent of J.R. Ewing from Dallas. They do not want to end the world. They want to own it. They do not want to kill America. They want to buy it.
North Korea does not want to blow up the world. Yes, their leader is mentally unstable. Yet his people are starving. He wants attention, and they want food. They do not want to kill people. They just want to eat.
Iran is different. President Mahmoud Armageddonijad believes that the 12th Imam will return when there is a cataclysm. Then Islam will reign supreme.
Some will say that Armageddonijad is not the true leader of Iran, and that the mullahs control things.
The Mullahs are also “12ers.”
To illustrate how crazy our of their mind insane 12ers are, they were too crazy for Ayatollah Khomeini. Too crazy for Khomeini? Is that even possible?
Apparently so.
To understand how insane these Radical Islamists are, look at the way the left views the mythical concept of “Radical Christianity.”
They believe that Christians are zealots who want to make everyone Christian. While this is untrue, it is shocking that they refuse to see the same capabilities in Islamists (or environmentalists for that matter).
The Islamist true believers are willing to die. 9/11 is proof of this. So are the myriad of suicide bombings. The world is littered with Radical Muslims willing to lose their own lives for 72 virgins. We know this because it is not theory. It is actually happening.
This is why the friendly disagreement I have with my friend is so important. He believes that the Mullahs do not believe their own nonsense. I believe they do.
So in determining what action to take, the answer is to look at a cold, logical, matrix of consequences.
If I am wrong, there are no consequences. Everything turns out fine.
If he is wrong, Israel gets wiped off the map. After Little Satan is eradicated, the Great Satan America is next.
When I pointed this out to him, he had no answer.
He was “pretty sure” he was right. He “hoped” he was right.
I hope he is right.
Yet hope is not enough. This is my main problem with the left, from President Obama to the liberals in congress.
When the question of “what if they are wrong?” is brought up, they have no answers.
One can argue whether the left is taking a blind gamble or a calculated gamble, but it is a gamble nonetheless. Get the risk wrong, watch the world burn.
I cannot take this gamble. I believe the mullahs want to kill us all because we are infidels. They want a Caliphate. They want the cataclysm to bring back the 12th Imam.
I believe they are willing to die.
A president who upholds his oath to protect and defend the Constitution and also to defend our allies must be willing to do something.
Doing nothing is not the answer.
Sanctions are not going to occur.
If somebody has a solution beside military force, I would truly love to see and hear it.
If they cannot offer a viable alternative, then war is the answer.
War is hell.
Getting eradicated is worse.
Iran cannot be allowed to have the bomb. China, Russia, and North Korea have leverage because the bomb gives them that leverage. Those nations can do whatever they want, and we have no say. Iran must not get to that point of defiance.
I am not willing to be blown to kingdom come because leftist peaceniks played Persian Roulette with Armageddonijad.
It is time to take military action against Iran while we still can.
eric
“Let my people go” as we’ve heard in that famour song many times.
Russia let it’s people go (after paying a huge exist tax).
Germany wanted to murder all 11m Jews in Europe and Russia,
and succeeded in killing 6.5m. Had the French fleet not been detroyed
in Algeria and confiscated elsewhere or neutralized. England today would
be speaking Deitch.
Russia would be no more, with “living space” ( the murder of 100m
slaves there ) the official policy of the Krauts ( ethnic cleansing big time
in order to allow space for the super race).
The US under the above scenario, would have seen an ambargo
around all it’s coastlines..with the French, Italian, Japanese
and Italian destroyers and cruisers ofshore. impeding any sea lane
traffic and aid to the now conquored Europe (and the deaths of those 11
m).
In the 67 War, and then again in 1973, Israel planned to stop
the “final jihad”, and “the mother of all battles” by ultimately
using it’s few atomic bombs on Arab cities and military concentrations.
It never came to that, thanks to it’s pre-emptive attack by 300 planes
in 67 and Sharon’s daring crossing of the Suez Canal and outflanking
Egypt’s tank corps, creating a “window” for Jewish warplanes to
attack the missile sites AND tank formations in the Sinai.
Iran will be able to produce over 10 bombs a year, once it
completes it’s circle of uranium enrichment. It already has
the Shihab Missiles to deliver these weapons and b/c warheads.
It believes it doesn’t need atomic bombs, that it’s conventional forces
(over 5m under arms), can do the job of ending the “Zionist racist
regime” once and for all. It calls Israel a “microbe” in the Arab world that
will be eliminated.
It repeatedly calls for Israel’s destruction.
Iran boast 40,000 suicide bombers and clandestine cells worldwide.
It states that if attacked by the US or Israel, it will nuke our cities ( if
nukes used agains it).
Does anyone truly believe that Iran’s goal is NOT the murder and wounding of every Jew alive worldwide, beginning with Israel?
Does anyone believe that it won’t resort of killing “infidels” (Christians)
opposed to it?
Eric’s liberal friends are living in the twilight zone. Come the
final jihad, they will be the first to be rounded up and beheaded.
Don’t believe me, ask the head of the Revolutionary Guards (Iran)
Iran’s top mullahs and parliamentarians and Ahmad himself.
I do not intend to wait around for that day. I will pray that the
liberals in office are thrown out in Nov. I will vote Republican to
save our country from further disaster.
I don’t want Times Square to be the beginning of the Jihad.
Prior to WW2, many people laughed at Hitler, thinking him a
joke, a comedian, a temporary blip on the German scene.
Had the French fleet not been sunk by the Brits..we’d all be
speaking German today, except me. I would be a lampshade.
There is no doubt in my mind that Iran will instigate a fight
between Israel and it’s surrogate groups, Hezbollah, Hamas, Fatah,
Al Aksa and Syria……then all hell will break out. One nuke over
Tel Aviv, and 30m dead Iranians won’t matter much.
“It is time to take military action against Iran while we still can.”
Its been time for a long time.
All reactors and existing nuke projects need to be taken out. I dont trust them with nuke material of anykind. Any nucler material is a WMD in any form
Issue a warning to those in these facilities that they could get bunker busted anyday now. When that day comes and they’re still there… oh well, dont say we didnt try.
Whats to say they wont sell a chunk of plutomium, suit case included ?
Schmucks just released Al Queda inmates to the Pakistani border.
Well, Tygrrrr got a couple of things wrong about the rationales of these players in the Middle East. Saddam didn’t “(fear) Iran, and waged war with it because he believed they wanted to kill him.” That’s a terribly simplistic revision of relatively modern history. I’m surprised our good host would believe such a silly thing.
Iraq started that war, not Iran. The pretense was that Iran was fomenting insurrection among the “marsh arabs” of southern Iraq. In reality, Saddam was trying to kill two birds with one stone – to squash the marsh arabs and to control access to the Gulf. As usual, lately, the war was mostly about oil, or in this case, about controlling it’s flow.
Contrary to what conservatives nmay project of themselves on others, most people, and especially people in power, act quite uinderstandably and rationally, whether we like their decisions or not. Tygrrrr’s friend is right. Iran is not some comic-bookish hall of villains bent on the destrution of Israel. They talk about Israel a lot, but that’s for the consumption of the rabble, just as our politicians here in the USA spouit stupid rhetoric about Islam and immigration and “liberals” and such – for the consumption of the rabble. Iran wan’t to be a major world player. They want a seat at the table. They want their interests taken seriously. THAT is what this is all about. Just as conservatives could never do without abortion, and gays, and illegal immigrants, Iran could never do without Israel. It makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE for Iran to ever attempt to destroy Israel. Anyone who thinks otherwise is being horribly naive – taken in by the same sort of rabble rousing rhetoric Ahmadinejad used to placate his idiotic base.
JMJ
“It makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE for Iran to ever attempt to destroy Israel. ”
Well, the main thing you’re missing out on is that these idiots dont carry any sense, soooooo…
That statement of yours is moot seeing as how there are no gays in Iranand cleavage causes earth quakes.
yeah, makes sense to me
Oh, and by the way Mr. “student if history’
Saddam was most definately afraid of Iran later in the war. After a cease fire was called the Iranians persisted offensively totally demoralizing Saddams troops and he ended up having to give Iran millions in reparations. I remember, what were you, 10 years old ?
Right Micky. They have no sense. They’re all just googly oogly craaaaaazyyyyy!!!!
Get real.
I was twenty. I remember it well. And he OWED Iran for that sleazy Cold War proxy fight. Reagan, that crook, should have paid it personally.
JMJ
“They have no sense. They’re all just googly oogly craaaaaazyyyyy!!!!”
Hey, you tell me.
A theological dictatorship resembling the failures of organized religion past and present is sane ?
Legislation that dictates brutality to women is sane ?
Threatening a nuclear power with annihalation is sane ?
Believing you have no gays and cleavage causes earth quakes is sane ?
Constructing nucler weapons at the risk of military action is sane ?
Allowing al Queda unfettered movement whithin their country is sane ? (Sunni vs Shia)
If you dont think the Iranian admin. is bat sht nuts then your are also.
“I was twenty. I remember it well. And he OWED Iran for that sleazy Cold War ”
That doesnt change the fact that he was scared of the Iranians and their resolve after a cease fire was called.
I was 20, you’ve mentioned your age before, making you younger than me