Liberal slanted politics alert

and by that I mean you are about to hear my liberal slanted politics. So the drumbeats of war with Iran have started; Fox news has already begun referring to the war in the present tense and claiming that Iran started the war by attacking our soldiers in Iraq.

First, I realize that the true-red neo-cons* don't really care whether or not these statements hold up to scrutiny. To them words are just ways of conveying emotion and projecting strength: life is about being the alpha-dog or being the bitch. I get that. But for those of us who actually think that rational thought is important I ask the following question:

1. Is there any evidence that agents sanctioned by the Iranian government have attacked US soldiers?

2. Since the US Military has admitted we began running Black-Ops raids into Iran when we invaded Afghanistan didn't we attack them first?

3. If we are going to hold Iran accountable for the black market arms that the insurgents have gotten that were produced in Iran are we also going to hold Russia accountable? Are we going to invade ourselves? The majority of the weopons used were made in the USA after all.......

I am not saying that Iran is a shinning beacon of civilization and justice. I am not saying it's government is good. I am saying that we should think before we leap. And any arguments the administration makes are designed to get your reptilian core all angry.

I am just suggesting that it's easy to give into our reptilian core and start shooting. But once the shots are fired, things tend to get hard. Like, I don't know, say Iraq. And Afghanistan.

It's actually kind of hard to think things through. But, gosh, if we think things through we might find we don't need to smack Iran. Or, if we do, we might find we are prepared for actually managing the smacking so it doesn't turn into a bad version of playground bullying were a bunch of people don't die.


*As a side, I am not really sure the neo-libs and neo-cons are that different on the whole "transformation" theory. It's just that the neo-libs don't have the actual influence on the ground that the neo-cons do.