Kabuki Theater

As much as I hate to admit it, there are moments when I wish that the United States and Israel would just go ahead and get it over with. Damn the Torpedoes and send in the cruise missiles. The consequences of launching an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would quite likely be catastrophic, but Trixie Klondike would be thrilled. I just heard that nickname for Ms. Palin earlier this morning and my kudos to the genius who coined it. If only I could be so clever.

It seems highly unlikely that President Ahmadinejad donned those funky googles to watch a Farsi translation of Avatar, so I am left to conclude that his choice of eye wear has something to do with Iran's nuclear program. That, or he is watching an episode of Captain Video with his pal Ed Norton. Speaking of beloved old TV shows, I remember an episode of All in the Family that has Archie going on the local news program to deliver a rebuttal. I think perhaps Archie was onto something. Why not simply make nuclear weapons technology available to every nation? As demonstrated by the fact that we chose to invade Iraq, and not North Korea, it seems obvious that possession of even a single nuke is a powerful deterrent against aggression.

If the bombs and missiles start falling on Iran, the one thing we can be sure of is that our actions will trigger what the boys in Langley like to call "blowback". Regardless of whether or not the attacks accomplish what they are supposed to (unlikely), this country will become the target of terror attacks, and at least a couple of them will achieve their purpose. But, as we well know, even a failed attempt results in desirable results from the point of view of the terrorist, not to mention our own government. What I am referring to is more curtailment of civil liberties; more strip-searches at the airport, virtual and otherwise; a further expansion of big government, only not the kind of government that makes our lives better.

And, I seem to recall a time, not so long ago, when we actually encouraged the Iranians to go nuclear...