Like most hawks, Cotton minimizes the costs and duration of military action, he ignores the likely consequences, and he treats an attack on Iran as cavalierly as possible. The comparison with Desert Fox is laughable. That operation took place years after the U.S. had already destroyed Iraqi defenses, which clearly isn’t the case with Iran. Cotton further misleads the public to think that the only thing that can qualify as war with Iran is a scenario involving “150,000 heavy mechanized troops on the ground.” It is the Iran hawks that want the public to think that a major ground invasion is the only thing that can be called war, which allows them to advocate for a different kind of war against Iran while pretending that they don’t favor war. They don’t want to face the potential political cost of warmongering, so they pretend that they are advocating for something that isn’t “really” war. But, of course, war is exactly what they’re demanding.If McCain had been elected instead of Obama in 2008, the US would already be deeply enmeshed in war with Iran.
The American Conservative
Cotton’s Blithe Warmongering
Daniel Larison
3 comments:
If McCain had been elected instead of Obama in 2008, the US would already be deeply enmeshed in war with Iran.
If McCain had been elected, Democrats would still control Congress, McCain would not be able to get much done, the Republican party would be completely discredited by VP Palin, and "liberals" would be protesting the wars like they did under Bush.
@ Dan Lynch
And the US would be embroiled in a war with Iran, at least. McCain would not have let Congress get in the way after Bush had set up the mechanism for the unitary executive.
McCain would have found an excuse to "legally' bomb Iran without Congressional approval if he couldn't get it, using the same tactics that Bush did to scare the American public, and then dare Congress to impeach him over it. After all, McCain would have won the election and could claim a mandate.
And that attack on Iran would lead to the predictable response Iran has promised, which would then force any Congress to approve a wider war in the region.
Iran would use missiles to destroy the Saudi oil fields, pretty much right off the bat, putting the world into severe economic contraction.
The idea that the US can just drop some bombs on Iran setting back its nuclear program is just fanciful.
It would also finish off what's left of America's tattered soft power and create a pressing need for strategic alliances against the US, handing China a nothing strategic victory for nothing.
These people are nuts.
Sounds like you're describing the future, Tom.
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