Banging the Drums of War

I watched the TV show about Sarah Palin’s run for Vice President. I was appalled that she was so lacking in the basics of education, didn’t even know where some countries were, and yet we were presented with someone who was just stage-struck or shy. How could we run somebody for that office and not know these things?

Another interesting thing the other day was Rick Santorum’s single appearance in the Puerto Rican Republican primary. He went down there to make one speech. The Republicans of Puerto Rico were very much looking forward to this because he has, in the past, supported Puerto Rico’s efforts to become the 51^st state.

At the speech, he was asked to confirm his support for that option. Here is what he said:

“I support statehood for Puerto Rico. But I have a condition. First, Puerto Ricans have to agree to all speak English, which is the law in the other 50 states.”

There of course is no such law. He returned to the mainland after making this speech. Then he got thumped in the primary in Puerto Rico by Mitt Romney.

Also, have you noticed recently that there is a war mood in the air? It’s being talked about as an option in Iran, Israel, North Korea, Syria and even here in America, where Obama emphatically said it was on the table. In my lifetime I have never felt this kind of awful energy, although I read about it in the run-up to World War II.

This past week, a secret report about military action against Iran was released. It was a war game. Israel would make a surprise attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. Then Iran jets would chase them home. Iran would fire missiles at American warships in the Gulf after that, and perhaps sink one of them, with the loss of 400 American lives. After that, America would pound Iran with a further bombing attack on the nuclear facilities.

The result of all this would be that the Israeli attack would set the Iranian program back one year, and then the American attack would set it back another two years. Israel would survive. There would be no further war because Iran would be very reluctant to engage the massively more powerful military of the United States, and offers by Iran for help would get them nowhere.

How did this secret plan get leaked? I like to think that Obama released it deliberately. It may be his way of defusing all the war talk. Ears would perk up in Iran. The Iranians could root for themselves in the war game. But they could see it wouldn’t work out. So they might dismantle their bomb-making program voluntarily, with all the pressure being put on them.

One can almost see the Iranians looking in the national newspapers at the report of the war games.

Did we win? What happens now? Is there going to be another fake battle tomorrow? How will THAT turn out?