If Obama wins, Bush 'Might' bomb Iran

Kristol says that Bush might "worry" that Obama would not take action against a nuclear Iran as Iran's nuclear programme "will not be peaceful". And this is, of course, said without Kristol - or anyone else - providing any proof that Iran has any intention of building a nuclear bomb. This is simply taken as a given in much the same way as Saddam's possession of WMD was simply a given to these guys.

So Kristol's point is that unless Obama forcefully states that military action against Iran is on the table, Bush and/or "other nations" - for this read Israel - might be forced to act. The long and short of it is that it'll be Obama's fault if Bush or Israel attack Iran.

Bill Kristol is a nutcase who is wrong in almost every pronouncement he makes. The majority of Americans do not support any kind of attack on Iran, which isolates Bill and his cronies as the extremists that they actually are.

Let us not forget that before the invasion of Iraq Bill stated:

We are tempted to comment, in these last days before the war, on the U.N., and the French, and the Democrats. But the war itself will clarify who was right and who was wrong about weapons of mass destruction. It will reveal the aspirations of the people of Iraq, and expose the truth about Saddam's regime. It will produce whatever effects it will produce on neighboring countries and on the broader war on terror. We would note now that even the threat of war against Saddam seems to be encouraging stirrings toward political reform in Iran and Saudi Arabia, and a measure of cooperation in the war against al Qaeda from other governments in the region. It turns out it really is better to be respected and feared than to be thought to share, with exquisite sensitivity, other people's pain. History and reality are about to weigh in, and we are inclined simply to let them render their verdicts.

Of course, it is too simple to say that Bill was proven wrong on every single point on which he so arrogantly pontificated, it's better to note from the above clip that being wrong has caused Bill to lose not a scintilla of his arrogant certainty. A certainty which leads Bill to see war as the first and only response to any problem, despite the fact that he himself - despite constantly calling for war - has never actually felt beholden to offer his services to the armed forces.

That's because Bill sees himself as part of an intellectual elite and the rest of us as simply fodder.

One must never forget that Bill, like all neo-cons, believes that most of us are simply too stupid to understand the world around us and that we need our intellectual superiors to actually run things, even if they have to lie to us for our own good. This is actually one of the basic tenets of the Straussian mindset which they all share:

Strauss noted that thinkers of the first rank, going back to Plato, had raised the problem of whether good and effective politicians could be completely truthful and still achieve the necessary ends of their society. By implication, Strauss asks his readers to consider whether it is true that "noble lies" have no role at all to play in uniting and guiding the polis. Are "myths" needed to give people meaning and purpose and to ensure a stable society? Or can men dedicated to relentlessly examining, in Nietzsche's language, those "deadly truths," flourish freely? Thus, is there a limit to the political, and what can be known absolutely? In The City and Man, Strauss discusses the myths outlined in Plato's Republic that are required for all governments. These include a belief that the state's land belongs to it even though it was likely acquired illegitimately and that citizenship is rooted in something more than the accidents of birth. Seymour Hersh observes that Strauss endorsed "noble lies": myths used by political leaders seeking to maintain a cohesive society.

Perhaps, this is why Kristol has the sheer balls still to appear in public, spouting as if he has not said things in the past which have proven to be catastrophically incorrect. Perhaps he thinks we are all simply too stupid to remember.

At the end of the day, in his mind, Kristol lies to us for a noble purpose which he believes we lack the intellectual faculties to understand.

Tags: Bill Kristol, Iran, Bush, Israel, Obama