Posted by
mgraves on Friday, October 26, 2007 7:17:50 PM
I was listening to a local sports guy today—he also does politics and culture from a middle-left perspective. Considering this is Minnesota, that’s about the best I can hope for. Anyway, he and his sidekick were panicking about a potential invasion of Iran. Apparently Der Spiegel published an article to the effect that the U.S. had invasion plans vis a vis Iran.
Well, I don’t listen to this guy for his political or foreign policy insight; let me tell you (mostly he’s down on my miserable Vikes and perpetual also-ran Twinkies).
Anyway, so he’s panicking about an invasion of Iran. The Pentagon likely has war plans concerning all 200+ nations in the world—just in case. Radio guy is apparently unaware of this. Even if he were, he commits a fatal error when discussing foreign policy: he fails to take national interest into account.
His entire bit was that the current administration mucked up Iraq so badly that we cannot even consider invading Iran (despite the fact that Pres. Sarkozy-FR has said that war is a real possibility). While it may be true that the post invasion stage of Iraq was mucked up, that is irrelevant to whether or not keeping Iran from going nuclear is in our national interest (he also ignores mounting evidence that the U.S. military is learning from its mistakes—imagine that: training is changing to meet new challenges and the force structure is being changed to meet new demands, etc.).
The question of whether or not permitting a nuclear Iran is in the national interest is pushed to the side in favor of meaningless fallacious appeals to popular opinion or pathos. It is no longer whether U.S. interests are advanced or impeded by any particular course of action, but rather how a certain course of action polls, or its impact on the “children”. I hate to sound callous… no wait, I don’t, but the fact remains that the purpose of the national government is to pursue the national interest in foreign affairs.
To be continued.