VDH on attacking Iran:
There are really only two bad choices…. One is the present “outsourcing” course: Let the Europeans exhaust negotiations, pressure the Chinese and Russians to allow the matter to go to the U.N., bolster Turkey and the Arab Gulf states and advise them to build a regional coalition to contain the problem, hope that Ahmadinejad alienates the world even more. Then, perhaps, sometime during this process, a popular uprising or even a right-wing worried cleric will thwart the nuclear party in Iran before this latest Great Mahdi gets the bomb, and with it impunity through national adulation….
The other unmentionable alternative — if we set aside the real appeasement of letting the mullahs have the bomb, or the equally cowardly policy of gently suggesting that the Israelis do the deed, or some Lord of the Rings fantasy about a grand aerial armada of NATO, American, and Russian jets descending in bombing formation over the modern forge of Mordor — is a preemptive (or in-sourced) American “air strike.”
I don’t understand what is cowardly about telling Israel that if they are genuinely threatened by an Iranian strike, they should go ahead and attack Iran themselves. Wasn’t such self-defense the precise point of supplying them with billions of dollars of military equipment for decades? The neocon logic is completely circular.
Israel will be endangered if Iran goes nuclear, therefore, the United States must attack Iran before Israel can be endangered. Why? Because Israel is in danger. Why doesn’t Israel defend herself with a preemptive strike? Because if she did, that might make Iran attack Israel, thereby endangering Israel. What sort of kindergarten logic is that? The neocons must have an even lower opinion of the average American voter than I do.
Iran may hate the United States – and legitimately so, considering how we discuss attacking them as blithely and openly as their mullahs discuss attacking us – but it’s quite clear that the primary focus of their hatred is Israel. If this potential Iranian aggression is truly a concern for Israel – and I see no reason to suggest that it is not – then Israel should make no bones about seeing to her own defenses. As Israel’s ally, the USA should certainly support any such actions, but it is reprehensible to suggest that the USA should bear the brunt of any such action which is not only in another nation’s primary interest, but also her capability.