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To: nuconvert
Several [officials] said that as much as they would like to see the regimes in Tehran and Damascus go, military action in Iraq and Afghanistan had limited their options.

Why?

I have heard this line of reasoning time and time again--chiefly (though not entirely) from devotees of the "realist" school of foreign policy--and it has never yet made even a scintilla of sense to me.

The logic (such as it is) seems to go something like this: If only the US Army were not otherwise engaged right now, it would be available for combat in Iran. But that begs the obvious question: Why would we wish to use this branch of the armed forces against Iran?

Many of us believe that we would benefit by engaging Iran militarily now, rather than later; and, moreover, that any thought of a third, more antiseptic alternative--say, regime change--has all the realism of a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. But even all-out war with Iran need involve no more than the US Navy and Air Force.

Why would we want to occupy that country with ground troops?

5 posted on 01/02/2007 10:58:00 PM PST by AmericanExceptionalist (Democrats believe in discussing the full spectrum of ideas, all the way from far left to center-left)
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To: AmericanExceptionalist

Disinformation?


7 posted on 01/03/2007 1:37:05 AM PST by ClaireSolt (Have you have gotten mixed up in a mish-masher?)
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To: AmericanExceptionalist

I also wouldn't want a regime changed Iran to have nukes either. It would be a weak government in a nasty neighborhood. Iran, whatever its government, should not be allowed to have nukes.


9 posted on 01/03/2007 5:07:58 AM PST by PghBaldy (Reporter: Are you surprised? Nancy Pelosi: No. My eyes always look like this.)
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