Sensible Expert vs. Crazy Old Man
by Brian Pierce • Oct 30th, 2007 at 1:15 pm •
Fareed Zakaria debates Norman Podhoretz on the News Hour about whether or not the United States should bomb Iran. Podhoretz is a prominent neoconservative and (terrifyingly) a foreign policy adviser to Rudy Giuliani. Listen to how decisively he gets his ass handed to him by Zakaria; it’s worth it.
Incidentally, the fact that Giuliani is choosing to surround himself with advisers like Podhoretz is singlehandedly the reason why I think he is the absolute worst presidential candidate in the field, and God help us all if he ends up getting elected.
Comment by tet on 30 October 2007 at 2:11 pm:
It’s pretty hard for anyone to beat Hillary in the total disaster department, but Rudy’s certainly done it on the foreign-policy front.
Fortunately for us, Brian, I doubt very much that he’s even going to be the Republican nominee at this point, even though he’s got some numbers behind him at present. The social conservatives won’t touch him, no matter how much FoxNews begs them to.
Pod Senior represents much of what I find totally reprehensible about the Neo-cons. They’re like an insane Woodrow Wilson on crystal meth.
Interesting commentary from Michael Yon yesterday, seems that while nobody was looking we’ve come close to losing the war in Afganistan. He’s talking about going over there next since Iraq’s so quiet.
So, let me sum up what’s going on in Southwest Asia right now:
1) The Iraqi insurgents and Al-Qaeda are taking a page from Mao’s Little Red Book and laying low, waiting for us to get the hell out of there so they can go back to dividing up the country. American casualties are plummeting. (Seems to be good news on the surface, right? Nope–it means that either our side or the other one is avoiding combat. My guess is that it’s both.)
2) The US Neo-cons are itching for a chance to attack Iran prior to the next presidential election. Iran seems intent on giving them a reason.
3) Afganistan is a write-off outside of the few secured areas and our allies are about to bail.
4) Pakistan is in an uproar with a coordinated assassination attempt on Bhutto (including snipers along with the vehicle bomb.) It has nukes and if a terrorist regime came into power (certainly not unthinkable) it will only be a matter of time before one is smuggled in over one of our unsecured borders or into an unsecured port. I would call Pakistan the most dangerous country on earth to us right now.
5) Turkey is fighting Iraqi Kurd insugents on its border and is listed as the nation who has the most dislike for the US on the street.
I swear to God that the foreign policy under this administration is worse than either Wilson or Carter. It will take a generation to straighten this mess out.
Tom
Comment by Hanno on 31 October 2007 at 10:52 am:
Zakaria is a thoughtful commentator and I’m not sure it was quite the fair match. The neocons have a simplistic view of history. Comparing Iran to Germany in 1938 is like comparing Germany 1938 with Poland 1938. Iran is a semi-peripheral country, a regional power to be sure, but not a big dog in the international arena. Germany was in the top tier of countries in the 30s (and still is) Iran is second rate at best in terms of economic power, influence, and military power. Choice quotes are fantastic, but they are mostly empty rhetoric without much bite.
The stateless are the ones to be feared because they have nothing to lose. States have too much to lose.
Comment by tet on 31 October 2007 at 12:15 pm:
Ooooo, good point, Hanno.
If Iran had been serious about attacking either Israel or the United States, they could have done either anytime they wished in the last thirty years. For those who argue that Iran’s religion guarantees its adherents a place in Paradise and therefore they are immune to MAD, I like to point out that the guarantee is no more there now than it was in 1979.
It’s the anonymous nuke that we need to worry about, not ones coming from a nation-state, no matter how fanatic. We can track rockets back to their source. Container trucks, trains or ships are a lot harder to put one’s finger on.
Tom