This week's column

A war that nobody wants but everybody needs

The world heads for another war in the Persian Gulf that nobody wants but everybody seems to need. Looming behind the most crucial dynamics is the possible presidency of Barack Obama, suggesting that war may become inevitable due to the fear of peace. After eight years of Bush-Cheney, such is the state of our world.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency has been a disaster for the Iranian people. Despite all the oil wealth, inflation is raging and the economy goes nowhere. Add in a stunning birth dearth, the world's worst brain drain, plus Iranian prostitutes headlining European brothels, and this is clearly a society in a death spiral. With restless students chanting in public for Ahmadinejad's death, little wonder the man pines for a splendid little war.

Read on at KnoxNews.
Read on at Scripps Howard.

Comments

[Jeff J]

Perhaps Keith Olberman needs to supplement or change his concluding line in his nightly news show from the days since mission accomplished to days remaining for war with Iran.

[Jarrod Myrick]

If Israel does something stupid, then we'll be blamed. If Israel does something stupid, how does it end?

[Michael Frager]

This article is Tom's best work to date!

Welcome to brink, folks. Will peace break out? Or, will they set the world on fire?

In all likelihood it will be peace. Shame, I wanted to watch another war, it's my favorite kind of reality TV.

[Tom]

Tom, read your "A War That...Everybody Needs" at KnoxNews. Great piece. I hesitate to ask, but how did you determine that "Iranian prostitutes [are] headlining European brothels?"

FYI, found my way here through Gahlran's blog, and I read both regularly.

Best wishes

[historyguy99]

Answer to Tom's inquiry.

"Iranian prostitutes [are] headlining European brothels?"

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HK21Ak01.html

"The proliferation of Iranian prostitutes in Western Europe as well as the Arab world helps explain the country's population trends. The European Commission's most comprehensive surveys of human trafficking found that Iranian women made up 10-15% of the prostitutes working in Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy. [2] "Fatima" from Persia has become as familiar as "Natasha" from Belarus. Iranian whores long have been a scandal in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, which periodically round up and expel them."

[Louis Heberlein]

Rah Rah Rah Sis Boom Bah IW Onward!

[David Sutton]

Have to agree with Mr Michael Frager, this is one of Tom’s best pieces to date. Informative, but so well written, reading this piece gives me the same pleasure( albeit tempered by no small measure of worry) that I got on my first read of PNM.

As someone who works for one of Australia’s largest media companies I see the slow death of great journalism and commentary. Those writers who can capture a moment with more than just a basic word count and correct syntax.

Mr Barnett – your work remains a pleasure and an inspiration.

Running for office any time soon?

[Gilbert Garza]

"With Bush-Cheney seemingly content to reward North Korea with a peace treaty for generating nuclear weapons and sharing the technology with fellow rogue Syria,..."

There is always a seeming reward for bad/wrong behavior when a reward is given for its correction. I don’t think being content with this moral tangle is at all likely for any decision maker. We might go beyond this and question instead whether (and why) Bush-Cheney were content that this action was the best (most effective, least offensive, least odorous) timely option available to effectively further vital immediate and long-term security interests and objectives.