Tikun Olam-תקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place

Would you buy a used war from this man? (Stephen Crowley/NYT)

He must’ve been thinking that Condi’s “mushroom cloud” comment in the runup to the Iraq invasion was so successful that he should try it again–so he did. The Dishonorable Leader has the chutzpah to try to make us believe that if the world lets the “mad mullahs” get the bomb they’ll set off World War III:

President Bush issued a stark warning on Iran on Wednesday, suggesting that if the country obtained nuclear arms, it could lead to “World War III.”

In truth, if there is any likelihood of WWIII, the danger lies much closer to home than Iran. George and Dick are far more likely to take us there than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And I say this not out of any love for that demagogue. It’s just that I believe he understands there is a deterrent to Iranian power and has some minimal level of respect for that. Bush, on the other hand, accepts no deterrence when it comes to working his will on the world.

Bush continued his execrable remarks by distorting Ahmadinejad’s remarks regarding Israel:

“We got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel,” Mr. Bush said at a White House news conference, referring to a remark by the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that Israel “will disappear soon.” Mr. Bush said he had “told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.”

Slim=George?

So there you have it. If you’re against WWIII you’ll go with Bush wherever he wants to take you including possibly war. And if you’re in favor of world war, then you won’t. I guess that makes me Slim Pickens riding the A-bomb down to ground zero in Dr. Strangelove. In truth, I’m against Iran getting the bomb, against WWIII, and against a new Bush adventure in Iran.

The Times article also raises an interesting quote from a former top general about Iranian nuclear capability:

Gen. John P. Abizaid, who retired this year as the top American commander in the Middle East. The general said that “there are ways to live with a nuclear Iran.”

And Bush has done us the favor of summing up the purpose of his current policy of diplomatic isolation of Iran. It’s sure a winner:

“The whole strategy is that, you know, at some point in time leaders or responsible folks inside of Iran may get tired of isolation and say, ‘This isn’t worth it,’ and to me it’s worth the effort to keep the pressure on this government,” Mr. Bush said.

He added, “My intent is to continue to rally the world, to send a focused signal to the Iranian government that we will continue to work to isolate you in the hopes that at some point somebody else shows up and says it’s not worth the isolation.”

I can just hear the rumbling of the Iranian people rising up as one to overthrow their mullah masters. Look, I’m in favor of regime change in Iran as much as the next person. But there’s only one way that it will come: from Iranians themselves. If George Bush thinks he’s going to have an ounce of impact on Iranian internal politics he’s living a bad dream. In fact, Iranians will do just the opposite of whatever Bush wants just out of spite. And I wouldn’t half blame them considering how awful our policy has been.

On another matter Bush seemed to be in cloud cuckoo land as well. Just as Vladimir Putin was in Teheran telling the Iranians and the world that the military option wouldn’t work against Iran’s nuclear program, our president was saying this about his seeing eye to eye with Russia’s president:

“We don’t agree on a lot of issues,” Mr. Bush said. “We do agree on some: Iran is one; nuclear proliferation is another.”