All Things Expounded

Luke Knapp has posted a link to 10 reasons, from a conservative perspective, why a war with Iran should be avoided.   I wholeheartedly agree and think these are some very good, sound reasons. I hope the “cooler heads” prevail (if there are any to be found in today’s political environment) and Iran is not attacked. Unfortunately, the thrust to attack Iran comes from both the Right and the Left, and many elements of Obama’s cabinet are quite eager to confront Iran.

With risk of greatly oversimplifying the situation, there is a bit of an ironic tension in place. The USA probably wants to invade, bomb, or otherwise interfere with Iran at least partly to prevent the development of nuclear arms.  And, on the other hand, it seems apparent to me that Iran has little reason to develop nuclear arms outside of their value as a repellent to such invasions.

I think the supposed “threat” of Iran is greatly overblown.  No doubt, they are a major regional power. And their power in their region has been greatly increased since the USA has toppled the Iraq regime, creating a great imbalance in the regions dynamics. But I have a hard time believing that they would be any serious threat to a USA which had a principled foreign policy of non-intervention.

As much as a menace Iran supposedly is, they are very much a localized power, and really in the final analysis shouldn’t be a threat to the USA, at least not if the USA stuck to worrying about its own interests and the safety and welfare of its own people.  A non-interventionist foreign policy would go a long way towards marginalizing Iran.

You might also be interested to check out The Big Lie: “Iran is a Threat” by Scott Ritter, a Marine Corps intelligence officer from 1984 to 1991 and a United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998.