Can you point to a leader in the world who has no desire or rhetoric about seeing his constituencies rise to greatness?
If that was all Ahmedinijad were saying I would be calm about it. It's only when you combine it with claims that there was an eerie green glow & nobody blinked for half an hour at the UN when he spoke, and claims that the Mahdi will come back Real Soon Now, that I start to worry.
We have the ability to monitor developments, military buildups, political alliances and strategems, diplomatic coercions, economic developments, etc. These are the things we can and should watch in a measured and predictive manner and react to in a responsible and accountable fashion.
We are watching them, and the signs are bad. Iran funds Hizbullah hugely, which is trying to conquer Lebanon, has turned Syria into its poodle, whose nuke plans were just derailed by Israel, funds Hamas and has won it away from Saudi Arabia, and arms the JAM in Iraq, and supply the IEDs that are killing American troops. Internally they have an unpopular and unstable dictatorship badly in need of external enemies in order to maintain power. Meantime every responsible observer admits their claims to want only peaceful nuclear plants are totally at odds with their actions to date and they will soon have nuclear weapons. The only debate is how soon.
Now, please explain, in light of these observed facts, what kind of "responsible and accountable" reaction you would recommend? |
