I'd feel better about it if we had the Iowa or one of her three sisters in the region to keep Iran honest while we are about our business in Iraq. They could close the Strait of Hormuz awfully quick.
Just wrote the following in a personal email today:
The U.S. needs to go ahead ASAP with a military campaign to expel Saddam. The notion that this will be a quagmire, and that we will be fighting guerilla warriors in the streets of Baghdad is a crock. The Iraqis know better than anyone what a monster Saddam is. They aren’t going to fight and die for him once it is clear he’s going down.
It will take a small number of American lives, and a butload of American treasure, as well as the headaches of managing a transition to democracy, but the effects on the region will be dramatic. A democracy in Iraq will, of a near certainty, trigger the democratic revolution that has been building in Iran throughout the last decade. This could start a chain reaction. The necessary key to peace in the Middle East is to get the Arabs focusing on their own dysfunctional governments, and their prospects for a better future, instead of blaming all their problems on others (America and The Jews).
The Palestinians, for instance, want genuine democracy. With their high educational levels, their penchant for entrepreneurialism and political debate (demonstrated under the relative order and freedom of Israeli military governance -- under the PNA Palestinian businessmen are rolled for protection money by Arafat’s low level thugs, and even killed as "collaborators" for doing business with Israelis), and unique experience in the Middle East of having observed a democracy at close hand, they have excellent prospects of making democracy work. Unfortunately their psychopathic hatred of The Jews (endemic in the Arab world -- see sig) will not let them move toward it. How many more polls do we have to see showing that majorities of Palestinians support nail bombing civilians (~70%) are opposed to the peace process (~65%) support continued fighting with Israel (~80%) and believe the goal should be the destruction of Israel (~50%) before we realize that peace requires A CHANGE IN REGIONAL CONDITIONS leading to changes in attitudes?
Maybe even some of you who despise Sharon will recognize the force of something he has been saying for decades now: There will not be a stable peace in the Middle East, or a successful Palestinian state until the majority of Israel’s neighbors are democracies. We (Americans) can do something about that, and we should get to it. Those who claim that we have to "solve" the Palestinian crisis before moving against Iraq have the cart before the horse; indeed they have the horse pushing the cart backwards.
Large majorities in every Western country, including Israel, support the peace process. (Although 66% of Israeli Jews in a recent poll said they would oppose the creation of a Palestinian state if it could be prevented, most think a Palestinian state is inevitable and want to get on with it and make a reasonable settlement, and therefore favor the peace process by nearly 75%.) Palestinians (and most other Arabs) oppose it by majorities nearly as large. Trying to impose peace on people who don’t want it is more than just absurd, it will lead to more violence and more death and destruction, from which the Palestinians will suffer most. Instead we must create conditions under which Palestinians will want peace, even if only due to jealousy of other Arabs transitioning to freer governance. This is doable, so "let’s roll!"
Just what good would battleships do in that situation? They're less effective strike platforms than carriers, and they wouldn't get the Straits of Hormuz reopened in a hurry.
Contrary to what everyone seems to think, the Iranian government is not a bunch of yokels impressed by obsolete and unsustainable technologies.
Right now, the Iranians' hope is that we just pass them by for the time being--and ticking us off while we settle accounts with the Iraqis doesn't achieve that goal.