Friday, June 02, 2006

Deja Vu

"It's like deja vu all over again" ~ Yogi Berra

As I was looking for something somewhere to post an entry about this morning, cruising my blogroll, my primary server, AOL, "encountered" a problem and needed to close. So, it closed, leaving the page for "Inside Yahoo" displayed on my monitor screen. I usually just close that page out and was going to do that again, when I noticed this story.

Here is the beginning of the article, although I'm sure it isn't news to any of us:

"VIENNA, Austria - The U.S. and five other world powers have an offer they say Iran can't refuse -- if it knows what's best for it.

The six nations on Thursday came up with incentives they hope will persuade Tehran to stop suspect nuclear activities, but made it clear that Iran risks U.N. sanctions if it rejects the package."


That's enough.

You can read the rest of the article yourself, but you could just as easily retrieve news reports that were written, ad nauseum, in the years leading up to the GWOT.

Iran looks so much like pre-war Iraq, it's frightening. This is only the beginning because Iran's president, Abby-somebody, (I wouldn't be able to spell his name even if I could remember it)is behaving almost exactly the way Saddam did, in the years running up to the war.

The only difference I can see so far, is that Iraq had, or maybe didn't have chemical and biological weapons (I say that for the benefit of my Liberal friends, who refuse to believe facts), and Iran is working on building nuclear weapons.

Big difference.

I fear we are on track for yet another middle eastern war. And that is disturbing, to say the least, to me. I can just about predict what will happen next. Iran will refuse to comply, and the UN will issue another sanction.

And another.

And another.

Etcetera,etceteraa, etcetera.

And they will all be ignored.

What can we do? What can anyone do?

What other alternatives will we have? What other alternatives did we have in Iraq? It is the same situation we had in Iraq, and I don't see any way, at this point, in which we can avoid another war. Not unless someone can come up with an alternative to sanctions. And an alternative to war.

President Bush has been accused or war mongering, but what choice did he have? I wonder what will happen, when he/she is finally faced with no choice, the American President (be he/she Republican or Democrat), has to begin military action in Iran.

Will Americans back him? Or her?

If whoever is President when this powder keg blows up is a Democrat, will the Democrats finally support a war? Will it then be a "just" war?

In the same scenario, will it then be the Republicans that voice opposition to the war?

I find it interesting that the Liberals continually repeat the mantra, "War is not the answer", but they don't seem to know what is the answer. In fact, I don't think they even know the question.

What is the question?

How do we bring peace? How do we stop the violence? How do we stop terrorism?

What about; How do we save the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in these countries that are being led by madmen who refuse to comply to UN sanctions, and how do we protect the world and America from being attacked by terrorists, who do not respond to repeated offers of peaceful negotiations?

I have said this many times. I am anti-war. I do not want to see war happen in Iran. But I also recognize there are times when war is simply unavoidable. Yes, negotiations work to a point, but as I see it, negotiations do little more than delay the inevitable. Unless the Iranian President is removed from office and a reasonable man installed, the ultimate solution will be war.

Sorry to say.

I agonize over the prospect that America will eventually have to resort to military action. Again.

I am reminded of the famous words of that erstwhile philosopher, George Jetson:

"Jane, stop this crazy thing!"

11 comments:

Pamela Reece said...

I am as terrified of the warning signs as you are, Mark. It is just a matter of time. When will the madness stop? I worry about my children's future and the future of all the children in the Middle East.

Iran is a disaster waiting to happen.

Dan Trabue said...

"I find it interesting that the Liberals continually repeat the mantra, "War is not the answer", but they don't seem to know what is the answer."

Mark, you want an indepth peaceful answer? Read the following link. As a Christian who truly wants peace, you owe it to your own credibility to know what the Peacemakers are saying before you reject it out-of-hand.

http://www.fcnl.org/ppdc/

The above site is a series of documents pulled together by the Quakers. Makes a lot of sense if you give it a chance.

Lone Ranger said...

Wars are like earthquakes, the further you are from the last one, the closer you are to the next.

I'm a bit of a history buff, and I've seen no evidence that the human race is any more peace-loving than it was 5,000 years ago. Our weapons just get better.

You can't reason with evil. You can't bargain with evil. The only thing you can do with evil is to destroy it.

Why is it our job? Because we are the least evil country in the world. Because we have the wealth and the courage and the determination to root out evil wherever we find it. We are the world's only superpower. We are the world's superhero.

The left is astoundingly tolerant of evil. They have no problem turning a blind eye to rape rooms, torture chambers, prisons filled with children and women being executed for learning to read. Their greatest fear is that they will be put in harm's way in our crusade to end evil. If they were content to just hide under their beds, that would be fine with me. But they insist on undermining our every effort to battle the forces of darkness. They are a part of those forces.

To once again quote Albert Einstein, "The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing."

Dionne said...

Very well said and I agree. I think war is inevitable because Iran's leader is an irrational, psycho dictator. No matter how many sanctions, he won't comply short of a miracle and then like you say what are our options?
-----------------------------------
"How do we save the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in these countries that are being led by madmen who refuse to comply to UN sanctions, and how do we protect the world and America from being attacked by terrorists, who do not respond to repeated offers of peaceful negotiations?"

Exactly!!!!!!!

Francis Lynn said...

If there is no resolution or military confrontation with Iran before Bush leaves office & a Dem wins the presidency, I am afraid that the end result will be a do nothing diplomatic policy & Iran will ease on down the road toward a nuclear weapon. It will then be left to Israel to take out Iran's facilities. Iran is headed by a nut case & backed by other nut cases in Iran - too dangerous to be allowed nuclear weapons. Without a diplomatic solution & barring a revolution in Iran, the inevitable military confrontation will indeed happen. If so, the bashing of Israel & the US by the liberals & media will follow. Their moral compass is skewed. Irrational Iran will get a pass from them.

Poison Pero said...

I can already see the "big sanctions" coming out of the Security Council.........That and the new "Uranium-for-Fuel Program."
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Dreaming is free, Sheila.

Jim said...

"What choice did he have?" You can't be serious. There is hardly anyone left anywhere who doesn't think this was a war of choice. And the Bush administration has continuously proved that THIS war was not the answer.

Old Soldier said...

The early to mid empire Romans probably had no clue the empire would end. If we are not careful to protect and defend our way of life, we too will fall.

Remember, evil flourishes where good men do nothing. We were also told that we are at war with principalities (evil). Does that not suggest that we are to actively resist evil?

dreadnought said...

It sounds to me like appeasement. Not only to Iran, but also to Russia and China. Russia and China will splinter from the unified front as soon as anything approaching force is suggested. Despite their own problems with islamists they see money to be made and in the case of China, Iran will be a friendly supplier of oil. Additionally, both Russia and China want to and are challenging the hegemony of the west. The Iranian president is right when he says there is nothing the West can do to stop Iran, as he has recognised how weak we are. We are too dependant on middle eastern oil, too vulnerble to oil price increases, too vulnerable to islamic terrorism and western people have become too comfortable in peace, prosperity and political correctness. When Iran gets the bomb it will be they who dictate to us by threatening oil supply, threatening neighbouring oil states and threatening the west with nuclear armed islamic terror.

Dan Trabue said...

Old Soldier said:
"Remember, evil flourishes where good men do nothing. We were also told that we are at war with principalities (evil). Does that not suggest that we are to actively resist evil?"

And I'd remind us all again that Peacemakers and pacifists are not passivists. Yes, we are to actively resist evil. Yes, we ought NOT do nothing.

BUT, in the process of standing up to evil, we must not embrace evil means. Right?

Jim said...

We better nuke 'em now, then, right? Nuke 'em all.

Hmmm, that reminds me of Barry Goldwater.