Haven’t we heard this somewhere before?
Bush blamed Iran for supporting the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, for helping to destabilize Iraq by sponsoring insurgents and supplying components for improvised explosive devices, and for denying basic human rights to millions of its own people.
“The world now faces a grave threat from the radical regime in Iran,” he told the American Legion convention in Salt Lake City. “We know the depth of suffering that Iran’s sponsorship of terrorists has brought. And we can imagine how much worse it would be if Iran were allowed to acquire nuclear weapons.
“There must be consequences for Iran’s defiance,” he said, “and we must not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapons.”
Grave threat? Check. Support for terrorists? Check. Weapons of Mass Destruction? Check. Time to go to war!
Of course, we may want to consider the last time Bush trotted out this language. Remember Saddam Hussein, who didn’t even have a competent military, much less WMD and a nuclear weapons program?
The fact is that even by the most aggressive estimates, Iran is years if not decades away from nuclear weapons. Furthermore, on several occasions, they have approached the Bush administration to talk about the prospects of normalizing relations. But those overtures fell apart because of - the Bush administration.
What makes this even worse is that as bad as the last optional war of aggression in Iraq turned out, this one promises to be much, much, worse. Think $200 per barrel oil, global economic collapse, and perhaps even World War III.
All to fight a war which could probably be avoided if we swallowed our pride and sat down for some hard-nosed negotiations with Iran. Shouldn’t we at least try before we plunge the world into terror?
Of course, for this President, swallowing his pride appears to be a fate worse than death.
