Iran Policy: “I’ll Think About That Tomorrow”

November 14, 2011 05:07


How well do you sleep at night knowing that this is the incredibly evasive, head-in-the-sand view of both our Pentagon chief and Commander-in-Chief?

by Michael J. Hurd, Ph.D.

Associated Press reports: Military action against Iran could have unintended consequences, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said, sounding the administration’s strongest reservations about a strike since the release of a new report on Tehran’s escalating nuclear ambitions. Panetta told Pentagon reporters that he agrees with earlier assessments that a strike would only set Iran’s nuclear program back by three years at most. “Only” three years? So what’s wrong with that? And how else are we to prevent a dangerous regime such as Iran from gaining nuclear weapons? The only alternative is to sit, wait and let them do it. Is that actually preferable to “only” setting them back three years? Talk about sacrificing the good to the perfect!

“You’ve got to be careful of unintended consequences here. And those consequences could involve not only not really deterring Iran from what they want to do, but more importantly, it could have a serious impact in the region and it could have a serious impact on U.S. forces in the region,” Panetta said.

Translation: You can’t attack Iran. It might make people mad!

This is insanity, of course. The only people you will make angry by attacking Iran, and setting back their nuclear weapons program, are the Iranians themselves, as well as any allies they might have. Earth to Panetta: THEY’RE ALREADY MAD AT US! And they’re going to stay that way. The people who run Iran have called the United States the “Great Satan” for the entire 30-plus years of their regime. They’re never going to like us. They don’t even like us now, since President Obama came to office and has done absolutely nothing other than extend olive branches to this cobra of a regime.

AP goes on to report that the International Atomic Energy Agency said this week for the first time that Iran was suspected of conducting secret experiments whose sole purpose was the development of nuclear arms. In response, the State Department said that the U.S. was looking at ways to increase economic pressure on Iran. Israeli leaders have said that without effective sanctions, they will not take any other options off the table.

Economic pressure will punish the Iranian people, including those who secretly oppose their regime. The dictators who run Iran do not care about economic pressure. This is why they’re called dictators. They will survive, one way or another, unless a stronger country (such as the USA or Israel) manages to kill them. Absent that, they will continue to get more than enough of the supplies they need to survive. So what if large portions of the people they presently enslave will starve or suffer? It’s all in the interest of serving the dictatorship. It’s all about them.

Tehran, meanwhile, warned that any strike by the U.S. or Israel would trigger a strong response from Iranian forces. Iran insists it is pursuing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Yeah, right. A country whose official position, as articulated by the government, is to wipe Israel off the map and to ultimately destroy anyone else it can who’s allied with Israel, particularly Western European nations and the USA, is a country with “peaceful purposes.” Of what relevance is peace to a country whose leaders even say such things? Imagine if an American President expressed his intention to wipe, say, Iran off the face of the map. The President would be impeached by both parties in Congress and thrown out of office, probably in 72 hours, merely for saying such a thing. Yet our very own State Department — and Defense Department now as well! — actually buys the line that Iran is capable of having any peaceful purposes at all.

AP reports: Defense Secretary Panetta, a former CIA director, said the IAEA report is in line with intelligence assessments that suggest Tehran is trying to develop its nuclear capabilities, but that there continues to be divisions within Iran over whether to build a bomb.

This is Panetta’s way of saying, “I’m not ignorant. I used to run the CIA. I know there’s hard evidence that Iran is building a nuclear bomb. But I choose to believe them when they say it’s really all peaceful, for energy and nothing else.”

How well do you sleep at night knowing that this is the incredibly evasive, head-in-the-sand view of both our Pentagon chief and Commander-in-Chief?

Asked what will happen if economic sanctions don’t work, Panetta said, “I think our hope is that we don’t reach that point and that Iran decides that it should join the international family.”

Remember Scarlett O’Hara from the movie and novel, Gone With the Wind? “I’ll think about that tomorrow,” is what she always said, when reality got in the way and made her life inconvenient. That’s the official policy of the American government under the Obama administration.

And to think that at least half the population is seriously considering voting this man into another term of office?

Dr. Hurd has a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Psychology, Saybrook Institute, San Francisco, CA, November 1991. Degree awarded With Distinction. Master’s of Social Work (M.S.W.), Clinical, The University of Maryland at Baltimore, May 1988. Bachelor’s of Arts (B.A.), Psychology, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, May 1985. Distinguished Psychology Student Award, Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude. Dr. Hurd blogs at DrHurd.com



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