Sunday, September 02, 2007
(8:47 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
War in Iran
On 9/11, I was initially panicked that the US would use the attacks as a pretext for war. I opposed the Iraq War from day one. Now I am terrified by the prospect that our hated, corrupt, lawless president will start yet another war, this time in Iran -- even moreso given that the Democrats are so concerned about looking "tough" on this issue.So far my record is at 100%. At this point, every sane person agrees with me that Iraq was a bad idea. But say what you will about how just and wonderful Afghanistan was -- it was an abject failure. Bin Laden is still at large, the country is still in ruins, the lovely Western-style democracy we so generously brought them is a farce. And yet, no matter how much "competence" was applied, the idea of starting a massive air war against one of the poorest countries in the world in response to a terrorist attack by non-state actors is fucking idiotic. Plus the Authoriztion to Use Military Force has provided the Bush administration with a loophole to claim omnipotence.
In every respect, it was a complete clusterfuck, yet it seems like virtually every American believes it was a just war. No -- in reality, it was meaningless violence perpetrated on some of the most vulnerable people in the world, and it was a blank check to an evil and bloodthirsty administration with nothing but contempt for law and democracy. So congratulations for being so realistic and clear-headed on that one, everyone out there.
And now "everyone admits" that Iran is seeking nukes and it would be the biggest fucking crisis in the world if they got them. Mainstream opinion has converged! Iran is "a threat," and the only question is whether to use "diplomacy" (which would presumably be run by people who fucking want a war) or "the military option." Well, let me just say that (a) it's not clear to me that they actually are seeking nuclear weapons and (b) it's especially not clear to me why it would be a world-historical problem if they had them. Obviously the fewer nuclear-armed countries, the better, but at the same time the only country ever to have actually used nuclear weapons is the United States. In this particular case, Iran having a nuclear deterrent could actually deter the US from doing something criminally insane, so it might even be a net positive. But at this pace, we'll never really know how that would've played out since they're five to ten years away from nuclear weapons anyway.
And surely when the smoke clears, we'll find that -- oops! -- turns out they weren't developing nukes after all! Stupid "everybody"! Better luck next time!
