The Osterley Times: Kristol: We Need More War.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Kristol: We Need More War.

It would appear that no matter what the question is, the answer according to the right is always, "War, war and more war."

Not content with the disaster that is the campaign in Iraq, William Kristol is pushing the notion that America's problem is that it is not fighting enough wars.

Indeed, he has now gone in to territory that neo-cons have hitherto been at lengths to deny. He is now stating that Israel's war in the Middle East is actually America's war as well and urging that the US should attack Iranian nuclear facilities.

Why wait? Does anyone think a nuclear Iran can be contained? That the current regime will negotiate in good faith? It would be easier to act sooner rather than later. Yes, there would be repercussions--and they would be healthy ones, showing a strong America that has rejected further appeasement.

I dread to think what Kristol supposes these "healthy" repercussions might be? I note that he's too coy to go into the details. But the whole idea of American involvement in Israel's wars is something that has him almost bouncing with excitement.

And indeed, this is a great opportunity. I think our weakness, unfortunately, invited this aggression, but this aggression is a great opportunity to begin resuming the offensive against the terrorist groups. Israel is fighting four of our five enemies in the Middle East, in a sense. Iran, Syria, sponsors of terror; Hezbollah and Hamas. This is an opportunity to begin to reverse the unfortunate direction of the last six to nine months and get the terrorists and the jihadists back on the defensive.

And the real lesson of the Iraq war?

KRISTOL: Look, our coddling of Iran — if I can use the neutral term like that — over the last six to nine months has emboldened them. I mean, is Iran behaving like a timid regime that’s very worried about the U.S.? Or is Iran behaving recklessly and in a foolhardy way?

WALLACE: But isn’t that the result of what’s happened in Iraq?

KRISTOL: No, it’s a result of our deducing from the situation in Iraq that we can’t stand up to Iran.

So with US forces unable to quell the insurgency in Iraq, he is seriously proposing that the US extend it's war zone into Iran as well. And far from acting in it's usual capacity of encouraging Israeli restraint, the US should accept that Israel's enemies are America's enemies and join in the fight. Indeed, Bush should abandon trifles like the G8 summit, such is the importance of this task.

Perhaps President Bush can fly from the silly G8 summit in St. Petersburg--a summit that will most likely convey a message of moral confusion and political indecision--to Jerusalem, the capital of a nation that stands with us, and is willing to fight with us, against our common enemies. This is our war, too.

This is not an Ann Coulter piece of diatribe, this is a man who is listened to in Washington. Powerful people read The Weekly Standard and sometimes act on what it says.

And I notice others are catching the baton and running with this.

Dan Darling argues that Israel's Enemy is America's Enemy, and Michael Rubin argues that America should deal with "reality" rather than engage in diplomacy as, "Poorly timed dialogue is often worse than no talk at all".

So you see, there really is no other option for these people. It simply has to be more war.

The lessons one would have hoped they would have taken from the Iraq war are not the lessons they have learned. They are demanding more aggression, not less.

The lunatics have truly taken over the asylum.