The fundamental problem between the US and Iran right now is that there are NO good options. It does not matter whether you are talking about nukes, regime change, or whatever silly thing lame duck president Ahmadinejad uttered this week. This is the reality of the situation. So, no matter how much the Likudniks want to push the "imminent" Iran threat and float the idea of an airstrike, an attack on Iran would be a disaster for the US, a disaster for Israel and create a mess in the region that would make the last ten years look like a quaint little conflict.
I have not posted around here much lately, but the insanity of this new policy push just drops my jaw. I don't think much of Brzezinski's advice to Carter when he headed NSC, but even he pretty succinctly can put forth the counter-rationale to the most recent neo-con/Likud blitz to gain support for insane action. Check out the link below:
Some highlights:
The US does not have to let Israel use Iraqi airspace, and we should make clear that we will not allow it--unless this is the policy we support and we are ready to handle the consequences.
The money quote,
"Don't try for this silly notion, 'Oh we'll just bomb them, and the problem is solved.' It's a false analogy, and historically there is one fundamental lesson we should not forget: Stalin and the Soviet Union was more of a threat than Iran ever will be, and yet we deterred it..."
To Sum up the Consequences:
1. More problems in Afghanistan
2. More problems in Iraq
3. Russia and China do not support this action
4. Oil prices will go through the roof on uncertainty alone--can the US economy really take that right now?
5. Can the world economy take this right now? Seriously.
Fundamentally, allowing a new war to develop like this would be as stupid as Bush's invasion of Iraq, and quite possibly dumber...
It is time to get these militaristic stories off the front pages and turn our foreign policy back in the direction of sanity.