I know it's against all tradition to support sanity & reason in foreign policy, but I'm glad Glenn is there standing up for it.

But hey, our current idiots made everything wonderful and peaceful by laying waste to the society which was Iraq (albeit under a brutal tyrant whom they would have survived), how could devastating another huge region of the world prove in any way a bad idea?

That "hope and pray" article was also run on the Wall Street Journal opinion page. I emailed a response that said something like, "Wow, only a neocon could hope and pray for mass murder." They didn't post it. As I recall, none of the posted responses said anything about the insanity of his ideas. Sigh.

(Sorry if this seems like horn-tooting; just reminds me of the cheers for torture at the GOP presidential debate. So many people are so brainwashed.)

Podhoretz wrote:

But a bombing campaign would without question set back its nuclear program for years to come, and might even lead to the overthrow of the mullahs.

(Emphasis added)

This is the entire premise upon which his argument lies, yet he completely misses the basic lesson of 9/11. On 9/10, President Bush had approval ratings of about 53%, and no semblance of a domestic or foreign agenda. There was already talk of his presidency being a failure. One week later, after the terrorist attacks, his approval rating was over 90%.

Why is this? People rally around their leaders in a time of crisis, even if they didn't much like them before. If we attack Iran, why would we not expect the same result? The most likely result is that the hard-line government, which is not much beloved by the younger generation of Iranians, would suddenly find unwavering support from the entire nation.

Is this really the result we desire?

It's staggering how hot the water is right now. The temperature's been increasing incrementally for so long, we never realized we were in danger.

But when you read these quotes, listen to these people speak, the shock of how hot the water is just hits you in the face.

Glenn, thanks for the work, but man. What a frigging downer.

we can just keep repeating over and over that we are "killing Al Qaeda"

I've described several times how we can cause people to magically become terrorists by the act of targeting them. The fact that by any moral calculus you care to apply, such an act renders us as the "evil" ones, totally flies over the head of war advocates. Did I say "war advocates"? I'm sorry I meant death merchants. My bad....

I am opposed to the wholesale slaughter of people. Call me Moonbat.

At work there are FNC-listening Hannity-worshipping drones who haven't the slightest idea what is wrong with Podhoretz' "argument." To them it seems more like a football game than anything else.

Incidentally, this is all about protecting Israel. It doesn't matter how many people die -- innocent or not -- but the Jews must be in Israel so that Jesus can return.

It really is amazing that Tony Snow cannot admit that the tens of thousands of people being killed in Iraq as a result of the American presence are, in fact, Iraqis. This myth of "foreign fighters" really has amazing persistency in Wingnuttia, despite its apparent improbability. I do think it makes for a quick litmus test for pundits on how serious they are about the war in Iraq. Anybody who blames the violence on "foreign terrorists" should be dismissed as a propagandist or an idiot, and probably both.

Pulling soldiers out of Iraq to keep them from being killed refereeing a civil war...

Unpatriotic, Un-American, Looney Left

Hoping and praying that the U.S. bombs Iran to smithereens, killing untold millions...

Patriotic, Mainstream, Serious Neocons

Returning to an America that works for peace, respects other nations' sovereignty, and believes in diplomacy...

PRICELESS!!

psychopath n. A person with an antisocial personality disorder, manifested in aggressive, perverted, criminal, or amoral behavior without empathy or remorse. see also sociopath and antisocial personality disorder.

Medical definitions from http://www.hss.caltech.edu/~mcafee/Bin/sb.html

Other Related Qualities:

1. Contemptuous of those who seek to understand them

2. Does not perceive that anything is wrong with them

3. Authoritarian

4. Secretive

5. Paranoid

6. Only rarely in difficulty with the law, but seeks out situations where their tyrannical behavior will be tolerated, condoned, or admired

7. Conventional appearance

8. Goal of enslavement of their victim(s)

9. Exercises despotic control over every aspect of the victim's life

10. Has an emotional need to justify their crimes and therefore needs their victim's affirmation (respect, gratitude and love)

11. Ultimate goal is the creation of a willing victim

12. Incapable of real human attachment to another

13. Unable to feel remorse or guilt

14. Extreme narcissism and grandiose

15. May state readily that their goal is to rule the world

and excerpts have been floating around such posts for a while now, but yours this morning once again brings to mind the short story by Mark Twain, THE WAR PRAYER, which if I'm not mistaken either he or his family stipulated could only be published posthumously (for fear of retribution).

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/making/warprayer.html

The conclusion of the prayer that gives the story its title reads:

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen."