A friend of mine and I have been discussing the Kiddie Table Debate last night. She watched it live, while I watched it on Twitter. One thing caught my eye and her ear was the mention of war with Iran.
Ronald Reagan said "I believe it is high time that the civilized countries of the world made it plain that there is no room worldwide for terrorism; there will be no negotiation with terrorists of any kind." At the time, we had Americans being held in Iran. Needless to say, Reagan not only negotiated with terrorists, he sold them weapons.
More below the orange swirly of doom.
It isn't even a step to the right to assume that not only will we not negotiate with terrorists, but we will not negotiate with people we consider enemies. Worse, rather than attempt to talk, the Republican politicians don't hint at war, they actually talk about it as if it is a necessity.
In 2007 McCain said "Bomb bomb Iran" while US soldiers were dying in Iraq (never mind the Iraqi's, the military was insistent that it didn't keep a body count, a convenient lie). One could argue, I think successfully, this disturbed many Americans.
The idea that we should never negotiate treaties but instead should jump in guns blazing is a disturbing and frustrating trend. I just read Schumer is going to vote against the deal with Iran, fearful that sanctions will not be honored.
Yes, fear based politics is back.
Sure, we can be fearful of everyone. That seems to be the solution these days. 2nd Amendment lock and load and if they blink, shoot. But it isn't the way you handle international negotiations. You don't ponder "what ifs" but "what are" - and right now it is in Iran's interest to have the sanctions lifted. We can work with that.
This horrific notion that the best solution is to kill Americans purely for political points should take everyone's breath away. A study in 2011 found that 500,000 Iraqi's died. About 4,400 Americans died. I can guarantee you those 500,000 were not all soldiers.
When politicians argue that letting loose the dogs of war (please EVERYONE wants to say that at least once) is a political necessity merely to get elected, it says something is terribly wrong with either our politicians or our electorate.
I hope it is the politicians. Otherwise we're in deep shit.