Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Has This Really Been Netanyahu's Story for 25 Years?

At intervals, Benjamin Netanyahu has actually repeated the claim that Iran was just a year or so away from having nuclear weapons for twenty-five years.  I'm just saying, twenty-five years is very different from a year or so. If this keeps up, it could very well leave the impression that Iran isn't all that interested in pursuing a nuclear weapons program. It could also be the case that Netanyahu has been misunderstanding the level of the threat all this time. And if that's the case, it seems like maybe his voice isn't the most authoritative on the subject.

After all, presenting a speech regarding this issue to the a joint meeting of the US Congress, for the most part, reminds me that it is sort of dangerous to play politics with intelligence regarding weapons programs as if the threat were imminent when it is not. And by indicating that he doesn't consider talks with Iran to ensure that they are not developing such a weapon, he seems to be implying that something more dire is required.

If he's of a mind that he wants conventional war for real over an imagined problem, and has not noticed that a certain war that was begun in 2003 did not actually stabilize the region and thinks we can do the same thing and get different results, I believe I may have found a possible existential threat a little closer to himself than he may have supposed.

3 comments:

Yastreblyansky said...

Funny Netanyahu doesn't remember that 2003 war. He had a lot to say about it back in the day.

”If you take out Saddam, Saddam’s regime, I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region,” Mr. Netanyahu said then. “And I think that people sitting right next door in Iran, young people, and many others, will say the time of such regimes, of such despots is gone.”

mikey said...

This sort of public policy process has fascinated me for a very long time. See, you can determine if a public figure is sincere about solving problems or is merely focused on implementing an ideologically driven agenda. A sincere effort at problem solving starts with defining the problem and then working up a set of solutions, all calibrated to address the specified problem while lessening any potential negative outcomes. The ideologue, on the other hand, starts with the solution - he doesn't care if it actually solves the problem, everything is merely an excuse to implement his agenda.

So the sincere policy maker's solutions will vary widely, because they are intended to address different concerns. The ideologue will always offer the same solutions, because those policies are the point of his political power in the first place.

Along with 'six months from a nuclear weapon' for decades, you can also consider tax cuts for the rich as the designated Republican solution to EVERY economic problem...

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Sad thing, mikey: It's working. For the Likudniks, and for the Republicans.
~

Happy St. Pats to Everyone but RFK Jr.

  Sometimes an entire family is needed to properly slap a cabbage-headed man into something like reality, but also, it hardly works when he&...