What most alarms me about this is the lack of alarm of most Americans. We largely convinced ourselves that, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, we need no longer worry about a nuclear attack on the U. S. That was always an iffy proposition, given the fact that the nuclear arsenals of several nasty regimes--including that of the post-Soviet successor state, not to mention Communist China--remained in place.
One would have thought that the 9/11 attacks would have shaken us out of our complacency, but, by allowing our military response to drag on at a counter-insurgency level since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, and because no subsequent 9/11-scale terrorist attacks against our national territory have succeeded, Americans have become complacent and tired of the whole thing. We just want to pull up the drawbridge, crawl into bed, and go to sleep under the blankets for a while. That whole "War on Terror" thing is just _so_ tiresome. . . .
Well, as Trotsky famously said, "You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you." Now, I don't think Ahmadinejad is itching to blow up Miami just for the sake of blowing up Miami--Tel-Aviv, now, that's a different matter--but he understands well that the mere credible threat of being able to do so gives Iran a free hand to . . . well, blow up Tel-Aviv or invade the Arab Gulf States, for instance, without interference from the U. S.
What most worries me is that A-jad is far from your garden variety totalitarian--a Kim Jong-Il, say. He thinks he's been tapped by the Guy Upstairs (a.k.a.) to usher in the return of the long-hidden Shia messiah. That sort of fanatism, while mad is not the same as MADD of Cold War fame, and thus must be taken seriously.
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What most alarms me about this is the lack of alarm of most Americans. We largely convinced ourselves that, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, we need no longer worry about a nuclear attack on the U. S. That was always an iffy proposition, given the fact that the nuclear arsenals of several nasty regimes--including that of the post-Soviet successor state, not to mention Communist China--remained in place.
One would have thought that the 9/11 attacks would have shaken us out of our complacency, but, by allowing our military response to drag on at a counter-insurgency level since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, and because no subsequent 9/11-scale terrorist attacks against our national territory have succeeded, Americans have become complacent and tired of the whole thing. We just want to pull up the drawbridge, crawl into bed, and go to sleep under the blankets for a while. That whole "War on Terror" thing is just _so_ tiresome. . . .
Well, as Trotsky famously said, "You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you." Now, I don't think Ahmadinejad is itching to blow up Miami just for the sake of blowing up Miami--Tel-Aviv, now, that's a different matter--but he understands well that the mere credible threat of being able to do so gives Iran a free hand to . . . well, blow up Tel-Aviv or invade the Arab Gulf States, for instance, without interference from the U. S.
What most worries me is that A-jad is far from your garden variety totalitarian--a Kim Jong-Il, say. He thinks he's been tapped by the Guy Upstairs (a.k.a.) to usher in the return of the long-hidden Shia messiah. That sort of fanatism, while mad is not the same as MADD of Cold War fame, and thus must be taken seriously.
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