Posted by
Patrick Henry on Sunday, January 11, 2009 10:07:53 PM
Some hard lessons have been learned, or -re-learned amid the carnage in Gaza.
Questions persist about how such learnings can contribute to a useable future, and
what role the war weary, economically damaged United States of America should
play.
Beginning with the most obvious, despite anti-Israeli and American leftist
sentiment, the government of Barack Obama must fully support Israel. (A) Israel
is our only real ally in the Middle East, and if we turn our backs on them not only
do we lose that alliance, we call into question the seriousness of our commitments
to allies worldwide. (B) Courting the Jewish electoral vote, Obama directly promised
to support and defend Israel. Betrayal of that promise would likely pit him directly
against the powerful Jewish congressional lobby, instigate open rebellion among
moderates and conservatives in congress, be immensely unpopular among the U.S.
mainstream and likely topple his government, beginning with the mid-term elections.
He simply can't do it.
So what does that mean? Sometimes strong words by powerful leaders can fore-
stall the foolhardy actions of the less responsible. Obama should immediately make
a public promise that the current dispute must be resolved betaeen Israel and the
Palestinians, and that the only legitimate government in Palestine is that of Mahmoud
Abbas and Fatah. All agreements, negotiations and settlements must be based on that
premise. Obama should further guarantee that any proveable intervention by a third
party government, whether it be Syria or Iran will meet with swift and massive
confrontation with the U.S. military. Promising it means he might have to, at some
point, deliver on the promise. But if Iran and Syria attack Israel he'll have to do it
anyway, so why not use the threat to pre-empt their intervention?
As painful as the non-combatant suffering in Gaza is, Israel should be allowed to
either finish off Hamas or force an international intervention with teeth that will
cripple their present and future prospects of successfully attacking Israel. Already
Hamas is running short on ammunition and showing signs of command and control
breakdown because of the deaths of their senior leaders. Sources inside Gaza are
also beginning to report a Palestinian backlash against Hamas for bringing this
cataclysm down on them. The writing is on the wall. Israel is winning and Hamas
is losing in everything but the court of world opinion. Leave them alone and let
them finish it.
But the Israeli-Palestinian contest is nothing more than a shadow game for the
real confrontation -- the one between Iran and the West. There will never be a
permanent solution in Palestine until Iran is de-fanged and contained. The clock is
ticking and sanctions are doing more to hurt the Iranian people than they are to coerce
the Iranian government. What the clock is ticking toward is Iran's acquisition of a
primitive nuclear weapon that can be attached to one of their long range missiles. Once
that happens, they will be negotiating from a much different position. Allowing Iran
to have nukes is like offering John Hinckley an AK-47 and a front row seat at the
inauguration. Iran is led by a hate-mongering megalomaniac who has publicly
denied the holocaust and called for the eradication of Israel, and a religious madman
who would have few qualms about pushing the button. The U.S. may have the
unenviable choice between attacking Iran's nuclear facilities or watching Iran and
Israel actually ignite a nuclear war. That COULD be the beginning of Armageddon.
Rejecting pre-emptive war out-of-hand means that we will have to re-learn the
lessons of Pearl Harbor and 9/11. As long as we pretend that Iran, without whose
support Hamas, Syria and Hezbollah would be toothless, is not the real problem,
and that we can talk them out of their quest for a WMD we expose not only
ourselves but the entire Middle East to a series of proxy wars, to a dozen Gazas
and eventually to nuclear blacmail.
Iran should be harshly warned now, and unless it ceases stoking terror and seeking
nukes should be struck a massive military blow without regard to either proportionality
or post-attack rebuilding assistance. With their air force and anti-aircraft defenses
suitably degraded, it would thereafter be difficult for Iran to support terror training
camps because such camps could easily be detected by satellite and destroyed from
the air or by commando raids. It is a question of whether we confront the devil we
know now, or run the risk of fighting seven better-armed devils later on their own
terms. Iran IS the problem. Take them out of the equation and peace will eventually
find a way. Leave them in play, and forget it!
Barack Obama and the Democratic party have an historic opportunity to undo the
perception that they are namby-pamby, military-hating weak sisters who are incapable
of maintaining a vigorous intelligence apparatus and a robust military. By doing some
serious saber rattling now, they may avoid the need to draw and parry later. But if
military intervention is required, there is no more historic a mission than securing
a meaningful peace in the Middle East to change America's perception of them,
write their names among history's heros and purchase their party's ascendancy for
years to come. They must refuse to become self-absorbed in the current
economic malaise and keep their eyes on the bigger picture. Obama himself said
that a president has to be able to do more than one thing at a time. The dictum is
also true of nations warranting the title "superpower." Now is the time for him
to practice what he has preached. Will he have the fortitude to do it? Will he be a
JFK or a Jimmy Carter? And will the Democratically controlled congress permit
him to do what must be done? If not, and the war widens, his presidency may quickly
acquire the Carteresque pallor of a one-term wonder.