“There’s been plenty of talk recently about the costs of stopping Iran. I think it’s time we started talking about the costs of not stopping Iran.”
Words from Netanyahu at AIPAC yesterday. It strikes me that it was about two years ago that Tom Ricks banished me from his blog for saying pretty much the same thing - although granted my language was somewhat more animated - but I was then and am still now shocked at how many public intellectuals have had a 'head in the sand' approach to Iran - I mean two years ago Ricks essentially ridiculed and dismissed outright as absurd any argument that either laid out the reasons why Israel might feel they had no option but to attack or, god forbid, any argument that attempted to actually defend such a decision.
I should reiterate that I'm not advocating for or against an attack - I hear McCain yesterday suggesting we bomb Syria and I think the man is nuts, that's an asinine idea - when we start an all out civil war and Salafi sects start butchering Alawites, who will we bomb then? [you certainly would be foolish to put a match to that tinderbox before knowing just how horrendously combustible Iran is going to turn out to be - and what are you gonna do if Iraqi Sunnis decide to join the fight?] - so it's not like I have war fever - I'm just curious as to why a nobody like me could see clearly how this all might play out but a pro like Ricks, a guy who could tomorrow probably arrange an interview with Obama if needed, was so blind to the reality. And maybe that's it - devotion to Obama - these devout acolytes of the Chosen One are very protective of him - maybe it was simply a case of them knowing what a disaster Iran could be for him and that's why they could not bring themselves to contemplate the potentiality of it in objective terms.
Or maybe it's a case of people like Ricks truly buying into the fanciful notion of Obama being an avatar of a brave new world where the ugliness of war only happens to simpletons like Bush - enlightened souls transcend such crudities - maybe nothing more than classic liberal hubris roused in defence of besotted ideals.
