Apocalypse really soon

OP-ED: "Middle East Volcano," by Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 21 September 2007, p. A19.

Krauthammer is now officially jacked about a looming showdown with Iran.

Ahmadinejad, who has no control over Iran's nuclear program or its military, is--as always--described as "apocalyptic."

Funny how we always feared the atheist Sovs and Chinese regarding use of nukes (now, of course, we rewrite or forget our history and remember them as coolly rational types with no such designs) and now we freak over prospect of Shia bomb even though we've quietly lived for many years with a Sunni bomb in a state full of radicals and which now serves as al-Qaeda's global headquarters and has a scary history of proliferation (Pakistan). Certainly, OBL's made some wild verbal threats in his day, and pulled off some serious stuff, so clearly we should freak every time Ahmadinejad shoots off his mouth, even though he's likely out of power just a few months after Bush and Cheney.

But these are meaningless side points. By all means, no one should stand in the way of the officially denied bandwagon.

More comparisons to Hitler, I say. Everyone knows we're dead serious whenever we trot out Hitler analogies.

Comments

[kev fors]

It does seem to me that the government of Pakistan is something of a container for the radicalism contained within it, whereas Iran's government is the fomenter of it. Thus there is a fundamental and appreciable difference in security threat between Pakistan's government having the bomb, versus Iran's.

I greatly enjoy and appreciate your work and your thinking.

Best,Kevin

[Peter Boston]

Mr. Barnett

You never seem to address the potential consequences of a nuclear armed Iran and how that may or may not affect the economic integration of the ME or even the economics of oil.

Ahmadinejad is not the first or the only highly placed Iranian autocrat to explicitly express the intention to vaporize Israel as soon as the opportunity presents itself. In a system where the final legislative and legal authority is one person called the Supreme Leader we can only assume that the public speaker is not expressing a personal viewpoint. Do you suggest that these public pronouncements should be completely disregarded by policy makers in Israel and the USA?

Please explain why Pakistan's experience with nukes has predictive value for Iran?

[Anonymous]

Peter,

you never seem to read Tom's complete body of work or search the weblog before you say he never addresses the potential conflicts of a nuclear armed Iran.

possible search terms: Iran, nukes, nuclear, Pakistan, Ahmadinejad, Mullahs, Ayatollah

please perform a rudimentary search before asking Tom to answer your questions.