Once again we are presented with a Middle East circumstance that does not easily dissolve into emotional projections of the tigers or the Lambs within us. The situation is very complicated, moreso because of a singular lack of vision (and success in Iraq) by the current administration, which seems destined to wangle its way to another shootout. That tragic subtext aside, there ARE real world concerns about a radicalizing and nuclear-arming Iran that should cause the region and the world great pause. A major, almost precipitous change in the balance of power in the region could directly endanger all the good the State of Israel stands for (beyond JS's criticisms); threaten the Sunni states in proximity, perhaps precipitating a more violent schism; disrupt the lifeblood flow of oil from the region, without which people are displaced and die in the West; and aid geometrically the cause of violent jihad, if the sectarian strife can be controlled, and even if not. Balanced against this is the prospect of a New Cold War, under an entirely new balance of power, and the need for a statesman or staeswoman to see our way through the shoals to ultimately make the conflict one of ideology: modernization versus medeival mentalities armed with nukes. In this dance to the moment of truth, Bush is simply inadequate to the job, except to saber-rattle, a necessary but incomplete response. Hurry up 2008. By then, our God and Allah willing, an intelligent and productive national debate on the matter will have ensued, the kind Bush shies from when he is drumming up a war.
