Do we really need to widen the war?
Reader comment on item: Involve Syria and Iran in the Lebanon War?

Submitted by Peter J. Herz (United States), Aug 13, 2006 at 21:50

Excuse me, but America's days of clear cut victory are long gone, too, and will be as long as certain cultural forces remain in play. 1945 was the last time we had a clear-cut victory; for in 1995 Sodom Insane could still say that he had kept his position while Bush Sr. was no longer in power (this is one reason why I am very dubious that the liberals will be able to win the War on Terror should they get elected).

As for Iran, to go to war there is to enter a rugged plateau inhabited by a proud, old nation which, even if it hates the mullahs in its heart of hearts, would still see them as the home team--something like China under Chiang, when the Japanese invaded ostensibly to save it from Communism in the 1930's. Our invasion would probably serve to rally the Iranian population. Perhaps the best we can do is to remind Ahmadinajad that we can cover anyone we want with a nuclear umbrella; and that some Iranian stunt with its nuclear weapons will result in the Twelfth Imam having to invest in some lead undies prior to being welcomed by a radioactive desert.

Further, it is becoming increasingly clear that Iraq, without a strongman holding it together, is no nation, but a collection of warring tribes and sects. Soomer or later, Kurdistan probably ought to be independent, and if Turkey and Iran cannot work out something with their own Kurdish minorities, that's their problem and not ours. Who knows? Maybe if there was a willingness to contemplate the opening of an AmEmbassy Diarbakr, just as we opened them in Sarajevo, Ljublana, Kiev, etc., it would put countries like China and Indonesia (possibly Iran as well) on notice that the days when the USA would bankrupt itself for the sake of the current set of borders (other than the Rio Grande and the 49th parallel) is long gone.

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