Iran So Far Away

Can you hear it? The drum-beats signaling our intention of attacking Iran have begun beating louder and louder. It seems to me that the more people who say that this impending attack is a phenomenally bad idea, the louder the drums get.

I don’t think there is anyone out there who says that Iran is a cute, cuddly nation. Far from it. The government of Iran is largely impotent against the Ayatollahs and the official line from both the government and the Ayatollahs is that we (meaning those of us who don’t acknowledge their omnipotence) are agents of Satan.

If this were the only issue at hand, then it would still be a bad idea to attack the country. There are other reasons not to, however.

With our troops largely tied up and exhausted from our excellent and brilliantly conceived adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, we couldn’t execute a land war that wouldn’t resemble a half-dozen school children playing “guns” in the back yard.

Given the fact that we have largely alienated the rest of the world (yes, there are countries other than the US and Iraq in the world), the closest we could expect in terms of assistance from the world at large would be they not take the opportunity to attack us while our troops are otherwise occupied.

Our growing debt is already strangling us to the point that I have signed up for classes in Mandarin.

Above all of this, there are the Iranian people.

The general populace of Iran has, for some years now, been resisting (though in a non-confrontational manner) those in power. There is support within the country for a peaceful end to the decades of oppression that were brought on by our ouster of their leader so many years ago. How long do we really think that would last after we started bombing the crap out of them? My guess: probably as long as the flowers and chocolates we were promised in Iraq.

The fact is that those in Washington are NOT our leaders. They are our employees. They work for us. It’s time we started letting them know they either follow our instructions or start circulating their resumes.