About the conservatives who are criticizing President Obama for not speaking out more forcefully in support of the protesters in Iran, he says that some of the same folks, not too long ago, were advocating mass death in Iran. Remember this?
Or remember how William Kristol said that Bush might bomb Iran if he thought Obama was going to win?
Or when Joshua Muravchik, resident scholar over at the American Enterprise Institute wrote an Op-Ed in the LA Times in November, 2006, that began with these words:
WE MUST bomb Iran.Who did they think would get hurt when the bombs dropped?
Glenn Greenwald has the story.
5 comments:
the republican leaders have become shameless in their hypocracy.
they know full well that the best course is a hands off in order not to give the iranian regime a way to negate the effect of their own people uprising yet they have to try to score points at the risk of more iranian lives.
Who did they think would get hurt when the bombs dropped?
Because the protesters are the same people working on the Iranian Nuclear weapons program and are in the Iranian Military.
Strange that the Iranian Military is killing there own.
Funny that progressives complaining about bombing Iran supported the bombing in Bill Clinton's illegal war in Kosovo.
@HTTT, as you pointed out in a different comment, if we get involved in Iran now, we will give the religious leaders a tool to unite the country; a threat from the United States. How are we going to help the pro-democracy protestors in Iran? Should we invade? Should we selectively bomb or otherwise assassinate the Ayatollahs? Should we tighten sanctions and find some way to make life more miserable for the people? What tools should we use, tell me (don’t just criticize Obama, offer alternatives).
Even if all we did now was bomb nuclear facilities (assuming we know where they are), all we would do is turn the US from a “beacon of hope” back into the “Great Satan”.
At least the Iranian military is not killing their own.
And yeah, it is too bad that Clinton did not let the Serbs kill as many ethinc Albanians in Kosovo as they could.
I was mistaken. The protesters could be held hostage at the nuclear facilities and used as Human shields
And it would be completely the fault of US and not the Iranians holding them hostage if they get killed.
it is too bad that Clinton did not let the Serbs kill as many ethinc Albanians in Kosovo as they could.
Did they ever find the mass graves with over 100,000 people like Clinton claimed?
Actually, I expect that if we did bomb nuclear facilities in Iran(again, assuming we could find them) the Iranian leadership (Ahmadinejad et al) could simply blow up a school and claim one of our bombs went off target. That would unite Iran, protesters and Ahmadinejad supporters, against America. Or, as you say, they could round up protesters and use them as human shields (although if we knew that in advance we would call off the air strikes).
You still haven't said what you would do in response to the protests in Iran. Or are you admitting that there is not a fool proof policy that Obama should be pursuing, that all actions carry a risk of either not taking advantage of an opportunity for us, or of causing a backlash against us (and undermining the cause of democracy in Iran)?
Yeah, Clinton was indulging himself in considerable hyperbole with the 100,000 figure. Still, pretty clearly some deaths were prevented by NATO's actions (who knows how many), and some number of ethhic Albanians were killed by the Serbs (at least 2500).
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