Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Neocon Op-Ed of the Day, James Glassman: 'Fear of Confrontation'

James Glassman of TCS Daily wins the Neocon Op-Ed of the day. Reason, truth, clarity:
"In the 1930's, the leaders of Great Britain and France tried their best to avoid a confrontation with Nazi Germany. By the time the confrontation took place, it was on Hitler's terms, with German power ascendant. It seems that the same dynamic is at work relative to Iran. A fanatical, bullying regime is using a combination of threats and grievance-mongering. Western leaders shrink from confrontation, even though delay seems likely to worsen our position. One could argue that the more that America fears a confrontation with Iran, the more likely we are to have our worst fears realized. It will cost less in terms of American lives if we deal with Iran forcefully and soon rather than cautiously and late."

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4 comments:

  1. I think our anti-confrontation lobby actually has two roots.

    (1) Those who, as discussed, have a cowardly fear of confrontation.

    And...

    (2) Those, and there seem to be a surprisingly large number of them, who basically hate their own country and want to see it defeated and humiliated. Mind you, I doubt very many of them have really thought out the consequences of this (potentially to them personally) and even fewer really think it would happen

    So we have cowards and self-hating fools wielding influence on a national scale.

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  2. Excellent comment by cap'n anthony, I couldn't agree more.
    Joe

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  3. Mr. Camus’s point is a interesting one and deserves a serious answer:

    1) A nuclear explosion in Tel Aviv alone will not devastate large areas of Arab populations, just as Hiroshima’s fall-out did not devastate all of Japan. Iran likely calculates that it can destroy Israel with a limited number of Nuclear weapons if it had the means to do so, with minimal Muslim casualties in the process. Note that the 9/11 killers did not hesitate to kill themselves, and other innocent Muslims working in the World Trade Center in order to achieve their larger objective. Notice that Iraqi terrorists have no problem killing scores of Muslims to make a larger statement against the US.
    2) Perhaps you have failed to notice the growth of fanatical suicidal tendencies and the glorification of martyrdom in Islamic culture in the past decade. Iranian leaders have openly talked about sustaining a few Nuclear bombs in response to the destruction of Israel as a price worth paying from their perspective. Such an event might even help usher in the return of the third Imam or something to that effect. Religious fanaticism knows no bounds.
    3) Iran has openly talked about the destruction of Israel as a national objective. They do not even bother to try to hide their intentions.
    4) A nuclear armed Iran represents a direct threat not only to Israel but to Europe, and by extension Western Civilization. They will be in a position to control the Straits of Hormuz, the world’s most important shipping lane for Oil, by using a Nuclear deterrence. They will be in a position to hand off Nuclear weapons to a third terrorist party such as Hezbollah and others, and use these proxy groups to indirectly intimidate and threaten Western Civilization population centers. I could go on and on, but it is clear that your casual dismissal of the Iranian Nuclear threat is not serious, is either a lack of knowledge of the subject, or is motivated by a desire on your part to see the downfall of Western Civilization.

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  4. All good points except for one thing.
    Iran has no nukes and there is no evidence that they are close to devoloping one just that they would like to have one.

    Meanwhile there is ample proof that North Korea is well on their way and damn sure just as willing if not more to use it in a zone where we have troops stationed as well and that we are technically still at war.

    Why then the impetus on Iran?

    Also the last time I checked Israel was a nuclear power so why is it up to Americans to fight this battle for them? Lame terms such as "by extension" and "indirectly intimidate" just show that there is no real threat to the US.

    Are we going to attack every country that hates Israel and wants to have a nuke?

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