Monday, July 10, 2006
Punting: The Bush Administration's non-policy toward Iran
Reuel Marc Gerecht has a very interesting article at the Cato Institute's web site deconstructing America's policy, or lack thereof, toward Iran. There are various bits of it with which I do not agree, including his ultimate conclusion, but it nevertheless captures the flaws in the current administration's approach to Iran and the nature of the decision that we will face as Iran gets closer to a functional nuclear weapon.
I have done a lot of reading on Iran in the last six months, and remain uncertain what the best policy should be. I am quite certain, though, that the United States does not have a genuine strategy concerning Iran, and really has not had one since the revolution that established the Islamic Republic. I hope to impose on you a series of posts on the dilemma of Iran in the next few weeks, and in the process develop my own opinions more completely. For those of you who want to come along for the ride, Gerecht's essay is certainly useful background reading.
4 Comments:
By 
Rightwing Guy, at
Mon Jul 10, 08:58:00 PM:
I wish we would just bomb them back into the stone age
By 
, at
Mon Jul 10, 10:04:00 PM:
Most of the country pretty much is already in the stone-age, although it's not nearly as bad as in Afghanistan.
By Papa Ray, at
Mon Jul 10, 10:56:00 PM:
France and Germany can not even control the Islamics within their own borders.
Look at what happened yesterday and last night in France's cities.
If Bush is waiting on the EU to do something defenative regarding Iran, he is waiting in vain.
They are going to get their bomb[s], we will just have to be ready when they decide they have enought ready and a reliable delivery system.
Then we can bring hell's fire down on them, but not before.
Papa Ray
West Texas
USA
By Cardinalpark, at
Wed Jul 12, 09:56:00 AM:
I think that's a little unfair. Between 2001 and 2006, we have deployed forces literally surrounding them. And we have temporized in order to focus on Iraq, significant for many reasons including its oil reserves and majority shiite population. To say that doesn't reflect the execution of a strategy seems kind of tough, especially if you beleive as I do that you don't go round telling everybody your strategy.
They're surrounded. And let's say they do develop some missiles and even some WMD capability. You think they can execute? You think maybe their missiles won't hit Gaza or Egypt or Turkey instead of Israel?
Let's not underrate ourselves and overrate our opponents too much. We didn't go directly to Tokyo; we putzed around on islands for a few years. We didn't go right to Berlin, we went to North Africa, of all places, then Italy. But there was a strategy.
We just haven't crushed them yet is all...
