BOMBING IRAN….You know what? I’m tired of weenie neocons. The usual knock on them is that they’re too bellicose, too ready to use force, too unwilling to face the disastrous outcomes of their own policies. And that’s all true. But check out this typical piece of shilly-shallying from Bill Kristol:
So the Democrats are hopeless. Unfortunately, back in the real world, Bush administration policy hasn’t been particularly strong either….What good has the recent affinity for carrots done us? Are our enemies in retreat? Are Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Moktada al-Sadr, Bashar Assad, the Sunni holy warriors in Iraq, al Qaeda operatives and sympathizers in the United Kingdom, and Kim Jong Il on the run?
….The State Department has succeeded in the past year in making the Bush administration more Euro-friendly and U.N.-attentive than ever. For this, the president has reaped no political benefit at home ? and the dangers continue to mount abroad. How Bush deals with Ahmadinejad’s terror-supporting and nuclear-weapons-pursuing Iran will be the test.
Fine. Kristol thinks diplomacy is a waste of time, a pastime suited only for fainthearted liberal appeasers. But is he willing to tell us, in clear and declarative sentences, exactly what he thinks we ought to do? No. Instead, he ends his piece with standard-issue Delphic mush, saying only that how Bush handles Iran in the future “will be the test.”
But the options for dealing with Iran are limited. If diplomacy and sanctions aren’t worth bothering with, that leaves military action. A few weeks ago Kristol was willing to say that we should “consider” a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, but now he no longer seems willing to go even that far. Why not? Is he afraid that teevee producers won’t invite him on their shows anymore if he comes right out and says what he actually believes?
