The Bright Sun of Modernity

(3)

Concerning Iran, I would also provide certainty: I would not attack Iran, that would be the kind of stupid Texas Cowboyism that got us into Iraq. Instead I would engage Iran. I would play up to their ethnicity and their relative modernity. I would tell them that we liked them in spite of their religion. I would offer them full pardnership in the international family. I would encourage them to develop their nuclear interests. Why not?

But I would caution them that if they insisted on becoming a nuclear power they would risk being humiliated by the same kind of Cold War Strategy which defeated the Soviet Union.

And if they insisted on becoming a nuclear power after all?

Then I would make it clear to the people of Iran that there were several nuclear submarines stationed within striking distance of Iran, any one of which could bomb them back into the Pleistocene. I would make it clear to the people of Iran that we could make every square inch of Iranian soil unlivable for 30 thousand years and that we would not hesitate to do so if ever a single atomic attack which could be traced back to Islamic terrorism were ever to take place on American soil or on the soil of any of our allies.

(Stomp above me just now as I reread this after watching The McLaughlin Group.)

I admit that this idea is nakedly poweristic, but it is clearly the best way to reach The People. I would furthermore encourage 'modernity' as our dealings with Iran became warmer. Modernity is the best reply to the dangers of primitive religion. Ancient religion tends to die when exposed to the bright sun of modernity.