Posted 8:32 PM by steve

It's not that the two go hand in hand together, but given that recently retired General Abizaid did such a complete and utterly incompetent job in Iraq, why should his thoughts that a nuclear Iran could be contained and $5 be worth anything more than an overpriced latte at Starbucks?

His thinking represents delusional thinking at its worst. He hopes that Iran will move away from its current anti-Western stance, yet cites no evidence - perhaps because there is none - of any movement. While he acknowledges that Iran acknowledges that we have a stronger military, he somehow thinks this will deter Iran from using - or allowing its terrorist surrogates to use - nuclear weapons against us and our allies, as if the world has never seen a conflict where a militarily weaker country has taken on a country that lacks the will to use its stronger military. He acknowledges that Iran's leadership "don't appear to be rational" but somehow, perhaps through a Vulcan mind meld, doubts that they intend to attack us with a nuclear weapon.

Look, I too would like nothing more than to be able to close my eyes, click my heels together, wish real hard and have the threat posed by Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons to go away. But this ain't a movie...