[lit-ideas] Re: The Iranian Threat
- From: "John McCreery" <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 17:45:07 +0900
Lawrence,
Let us take it as given that,
> This belligerence is a function of their ideology. They are ideologically
> opposed to infidels and to Muslims who don't share their Militant
> Fundamentalism.
The question is how you deal with such people. And I, for one, am no
great believer in "Be nice and they'll be nice, too." In one familiar
analogy, Mahmud Ahmadinejad is Hitler, and firm steps to squash him
might be in order. He might on the other hand be a Stalin or Mao, in
which case the sentences written above could be rewritten as,
> This belligerence is a function of their ideology. They are ideologically
> opposed to capitalists and to socialists who do not share their Stalinist (or
> Maoist)
> views.
Quite so, but this did not prevent MAD from being an effective
strategy that prevented nuclear war for half a century. Nor does it, a
priori, discredit the likely effectiveness of a strategy of
containment, a la George Kennan.
What we do know for sure is that saber-rattling a la George Bush or
Lawrence Helm is pecursor to a war of aggression that will be, however
effective the initial air campaign, not a terribly good idea for all
of the reasons that Zbigniew Brezinksi so clearly articulates.
To persuade me otherwise, you would have to demonstrate more than
Muslim animosity, which I am perfectly willing to grant you. You would
have to demonstrate not only that Mahmud Ahmadinejad is a Hitler
wannabe but that he is, at the moment you propose to start this war, a
clear and present danger and that you or those you support have some
sort of coherent plan for what happens next, after the bombs start
falling, the Straits of Hormuz are blocked, the global economy tanks,
and billions of Muslims know absolutely that their lives are worth
nothing if America is panicking and threatening to use nuclear weapons
itself.
Until then I will take your arguments to be what I take those of
George Bush to be, at best paranoid ramblings, at worst a tissue of
lies that your fears make you too willing to accept at face value.
Sorry 'bout that. What is is what is.
John
--
John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd.
55-13-202 Miyagaya, Nishi-ku
Yokohama 220-0006, JAPAN
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