Not Every Conflict is World War II

I often disagree with Gene Lyons, a liberal, but this is a column I agree with.

"Otherwise, the comparison is ludicrous. Iran has expressed no territorial ambitions; history records that the Persians haven’t launched an aggressive war since the 16 th century. While both sides hype Iran’s modest nuclear experiments, what may be the best intelligence suggests that the capacity to make a nuclear weapon is five to 10 years off. Military strategists doubt a bombing campaign could do anything but delay the Iranians a bit. Meanwhile, we’ve got them surrounded. There are U. S. bases in every country bordering Iran: Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Saudi Arabia. More than twice the size of Texas (and five times larger than Iraq ), Persia would be difficult to invade, impossible to occupy. Meanwhile, here’s what a “pre-emptive” tactical nuclear attack against a purely hypothetical threat would do: According to the National Academy of Sciences, it would incinerate over a million Iranian men, women and children, and spread cancer-causing fallout across the region. And on the day it happened, America, as we have known it, would cease to exist."

- more at http://tinyurl.com/6kwsl