The Human Conspiracy Blog-space

Tom Friedman chastises.

POTUS exhorts.

And Iran sneaks.

Tom Friedman complained about the NIE’s impact in yesterday’s NYT Op Ed column, “Losing Weight in the Gulf”, reprinted in today’s San Francisco Chronicle as “Let’s not be Naïve about Iran”.  

Friedman: “Right now, the Arab Gulf states are all sizing up America, their protector, and are wondering just how much Uncle Sam weighs in the standoff with Iran — and whether it will be enough to keep Iran at bay.”

Let’s not be naïve indeed. 

Of course the Middle East players see the NIE as a sign that American can’t be the trusted neighborhood cop anymore even though the local thugs are still in business.  Lot’s of players (think Russia and China) want to do business with Iran, and damn the consequences. 

No one claims that this president was behind the NIE – was sandbagged is a better description.  Moreover, this is the second sandbag: Recall who told POTUS about Iraq’s WMD’s?

Friedman: “I’d rather see Iran go nuclear and contain it, than have the Bush team start another Middle East war over this issue.”

Give me a break.  Containment of a suicidal jihad?  Maybe and maybe not.  Just whose lives are we willing to gamble?

Tom Friedman is a responsible liberal, the kind that is capable of supporting a conservative when the cause is right. But he seems to be suffering of late from the classic liberal naiveté -- the kind that Mr. Truman, say, never fully succumbed to.  Mr. Truman’s sense of political realism was forged in the hardball politics played in the boss Pendergast style in old Kansas City. 

The Middle East is all about mendacity and hardball politics. It is mob-land. Rule one in mob-land:  You don’t make nice except as a diplomatic gloss over the implicit threats.  Rule two: You make good on your threats.  No exceptions.

Some liberals are truly deluded; they actually think that you can waive your hands and speak strongly, while never intending to use your stick.  They are tone deaf to the snickers coming from mob-land.

This president is disabled in office not because he invaded Iraq relying on outdated intelligence that assured him our troops would find WMD stockpiles.  He is disabled because the left chose relentlessly to punish him for doing the right thing. 

Our Iraq invasion operated as a powerful deterrent to our enemies in the region precisely because it demonstrated our will to act decisively against an enemy even when information about Saddam’s true capabilities was ambiguous.  Nothing less than that kind of ruthlessness will deter the mendacious sneaks in mob-land.

We may not need to invade Iran.  But we cannot afford anyone to doubt our capability and will to do so if and when the time comes.

JBG