{"id":580,"date":"2010-02-02T12:24:17","date_gmt":"2010-02-02T12:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2010\/02\/groundhog-day-daniel-pipes-and.html"},"modified":"2010-02-02T12:24:17","modified_gmt":"2010-02-02T12:24:17","slug":"groundhog-day-daniel-pipes-and","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2010\/02\/groundhog-day-daniel-pipes-and.html","title":{"rendered":"Groundhog Day, Daniel Pipes, and Bombing Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ah, it must be Groundhog Day. In the movie, Bill Murray wakes up every day to the same day, where everything happens over and over again. In real life, conservatives argue for bombing Iran as if the Iraq war or the Green revolution never happened. It’s fitting that today is the day Daniel Pipes is arguing<\/a> at National Review that it’s time to “destroy Iran’s nuclear weapon capacity” – for Obama’s own sake, of course:<\/p>\n

\n

Fourth, if the U.S.limited its strike to taking out Iran’s nuclear facilities and did not attempt any regime change, it would require few “boots on the ground” and entail relatively few casualties, making an attack more politically palatable.<\/p>\n

Just as 9\/11 caused voters to forget George W. Bush’s meandering early months, a strike on Iranian facilities would dispatch Obama’s feckless first year down the memory hole and transform the domestic political scene. It would sideline health care, prompt Republicans to work with Democrats, and make the netroots squeal, independents reconsider, and conservatives swoon.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

OMFG, WTF, and LOL. In essence, Pipes is saying, “Obama, please wag the dog. It will poll well. People will rally around the flag! Also, I hate you but follow my advice I promise it will help.” He’s utterly and completely delusional, to the extent that I literally question his sanity.<\/p>\n

The conservative obsession with bombing Iran is hardly new – even John McCain joked<\/a> about “bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran” instead of reprimanding a questioner who wanted to send an “air mail message to Tehran” during the 2008 campaign. And the love affair with aerial bombardment as foreign policy tool is simply insane. Personally, I’ve argued that the United States should disavow aerial bombardment<\/a> as analogous to land mines, and while I doubt that Obama will heed my advice I am at least comforted that he sent more troops to Afghanistan<\/a>. With more troops, there’s less reliance on drone attacks.<\/p>\n

It’s astonishing just how wrong in every respect “bombing Iran” is – in its assumptions, in it’s immorality, and it’s actual, demonstrable harm to our own national self-interest. I wonder if Pipes really even believes what he is saying. He’s just a concern troll<\/a>, making a partisan political attack, whose concern is more about defeating Obama than doing what’s best for our country.<\/p>\n

(Let’s review some of Daniel Pipes greatest hits: He called for the US to replace Saddam with a “strongman”<\/a> because Iraqis can’t handle democracy; was a one-man jihad<\/a> against genuine moderate muslims like Tariq Ramadan<\/a>; and bought into<\/a> the “Obama is a muslim” smear.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}