I made myself feel better by going back to the NY Sun article and reading the commentary. Out of a dozen comments, only two resonated with 'imagining war'. Here's an example of the majority reaction to this piece:
(title)"This Strikes Me As Simplistic"
Reader comment on article: Imagining A War With Iran
Submitted by Chasli, Feb 2, 2007 13:05
"It seems to me the author here is grossly simplifying this whole scenario. If the US is isolated in the world because of its Iraq fiasco, it would be even more so by an invasion of Iran. As far as I can tell there is no other country that thinks that an invasion would be reasonable -- except of course for Israel. A US invasion would be widely condemned internationally and most certainly by the UN. Domestically, while the democrats have been hesitant to de-fund the efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, there is just no way they would fund an invasion of Iran. While the article touches on the certainty of Iranian terrorism in the Gulf region, it doesn't consider the possibility of Iranian terrorism in the US. There are many many Iranians living here in the US and it goes without saying that many are Iranian agents. The potential for terrorist havoc here at home would be very real. While the price of oil was indeed contained during the Iran-Iraq War, given the huge increase in oil demand since 1988 especially from India and China I find it presumptuous to think that the price of oil after an Iranian invasion could be contained at $75. What I am saying is that your scenario doesn't come close to taking into account all that an invasion of Iran would entail. It would give a whole new meaning to "imperial overstretch." It would be ugly beyond anything you apparently can imagine."
-- I don't think that imagining peace is any more unrealistic than imagining war at this point.
I made myself feel better by going back to the NY Sun article and reading the commentary. Out of a dozen comments, only two resonated with 'imagining war'. Here's an example of the majority reaction to this piece:
(title)"This Strikes Me As Simplistic"
Reader comment on article: Imagining A War With Iran
Submitted by Chasli, Feb 2, 2007 13:05
"It seems to me the author here is grossly simplifying this whole scenario. If the US is isolated in the world because of its Iraq fiasco, it would be even more so by an invasion of Iran. As far as I can tell there is no other country that thinks that an invasion would be reasonable -- except of course for Israel. A US invasion would be widely condemned internationally and most certainly by the UN. Domestically, while the democrats have been hesitant to de-fund the efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, there is just no way they would fund an invasion of Iran. While the article touches on the certainty of Iranian terrorism in the Gulf region, it doesn't consider the possibility of Iranian terrorism in the US. There are many many Iranians living here in the US and it goes without saying that many are Iranian agents. The potential for terrorist havoc here at home would be very real. While the price of oil was indeed contained during the Iran-Iraq War, given the huge increase in oil demand since 1988 especially from India and China I find it presumptuous to think that the price of oil after an Iranian invasion could be contained at $75. What I am saying is that your scenario doesn't come close to taking into account all that an invasion of Iran would entail. It would give a whole new meaning to "imperial overstretch." It would be ugly beyond anything you apparently can imagine."
-- I don't think that imagining peace is any more unrealistic than imagining war at this point.