The Nation; Neocons provoke Iran

I reall don’t think Leftists are much paying attention to the world and it’s dung like this from The Nation’s blogs that reinforce that notion of mine;

Listen up. Can you hear the drums beating for a third war?

The neocons are in a bubbling rage over Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Columbia University. The pro-surge propagandists at Freedom Watch labeled the Iranian leader a “terrorist” in–of all places–a New York Times ad. Neocon godfather, Giuliani advisor and “World War IV” author Norman Podharetz went to the White House recently to urge President Bush to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The title of the piece is in the title of this post – NeoCons provoke Iran. Um, I think Iran has been provoked well before George W. Bush ever became President, in fact before you pinheaded leftists ever thought of using the name “neocon” to describe everyone who thinks that the US is at war. Lemme see – the Iranian government is disregarding international protocols and steaming ahead with a nuclear weapon program. They’re arming their own enemies with weapons to fight against our troops in Iraq, when we’ve done nothing to provoke the Iranians up to this point. They’ve abducted British Marines in international water, for pete’s sake – the British.

This particular Nation writer, Ari Berman, is upset because of the Senate vote the other day (Wall Street Journal);

…a symbolic amendment offered by Connecticut maverick Joe Lieberman and Republicans Jon Kyl and Norm Coleman. After marshaling the evidence of Iran’s terrorist activities in Iraq, the amendment stated that “it is a critical national interest of the United States to prevent [Iran] from turning Shi’a militia into a Hezbollah-like force that could serve its interests inside Iraq.” Twenty-one Democrats, including Joe Biden and John Kerry, apparently found this too shocking to support and voted nay, as did Republicans Chuck Hagel and Dick Lugar.

In fact according to the Wall Street Journal, the sponsors had to change the language to get Democrats on board;

…Democrats only agreed to the amendment after demanding that its language be edited to remove a statement that “it should be the policy of the United States to stop inside Iraq the violent activities and destabilizing influence” of Iran. Also left on the cutting-room floor, under Democratic duress, was a call “to support the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq” with respect to Iran and its proxies.

Amazing. We can’t provoke the Iranians, can we?

The Left has learned nothing from the Viet Nam War. When the North Vietnamese were supplying the Viet Cong and it’s regulars in the south by moving arms and food down the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Cambodia, Congress forbade both Presidents Johnson and nixon from attacking that supply line because that would be “expanding the war”. The North Vietnamese “expanded the war” when they began moving supplies through Cambodia to further their war efforts.

Now, without provocation, Iran is supplying their own ideological enemies to fight our troops, and the Democrats want to tie our hands – again.

I’ll defer to the WSJ editorial board for the final word;

These are men who seem to fear the Netroots more than the mullahs.

Category: Antiwar crowd, Foreign Policy, Politics, Terror War