Thirty Seconds Over Teheran, Starring Holy Joe

WASHINGTON, June 10 — Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, an independent who strongly supports the war in Iraq, said today that unless Iran stops training Iraqis to carry out anti-coalition attacks, the United States should launch cross-border attacks into Iran.

“I think we’ve got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq,” Mr. Lieberman said in an interview on the CBS News program “Face the Nation.”

This could be achieved mostly with air attacks, Mr. Lieberman said, adding, “I’m not talking about a massive ground invasion of Iran.”

---NY Times

We've been hocking the chinik about the danger of an American attack on Iran, and the agitation in Zionist circles for such a raid. This agitation is motivated mostly by Iranian President Ahmadinejad's aggressive rhetoric against Israel and Iran's active development of nuclear technology. In the eyes of some Israelis and their supporters, Ahmadinejad is Hitler redivivus, or to be Biblical, Amalek.

I happen to believe that Ahmadinejad's bark is worse than his bite, though of course I don't live within missile range of Iran. Therefore, I would be less concerned about what the Israelis decide they must do to protect themselves than with the potential for involving the United States.

The fact is the only reason we have a dog in the fight is that we have already stuck our snouts into the Middle East far beyond what our interests can justify.

Given the fact that we are in Iraq, Lieberman might even have a point if Iranian involvement was materially threatening our position. In such a case, a "tit for tat" response, although carrying some risks, might have some merit. Although the Iranians are in a way up to their eyeballs in Iraq, it doesn't appear that their involvement in thing military is the source of the difficulties there.

What is needed is to fundamentally revise our conception of what our national interest truly is. This process would lead to a massive retrenchment of our overextended military positions around the world.

Lieberman's impulse to bitch-slap the Iranians, on the other hand, is fraught with danger. And without going on a war footing of a different kind, and assuming responsibilities with incalculable consequences, we wouldn't be able to finish what we start.