Talk - Action = uh, something, maybe?

This encapsulates as well as anything else the problems the West has to survive.

I can understand that a lot of people are wary of another war, though it might be necessary. However, to be worried about something, and yet so mentally paralyzed as to be incapable of thinking of ANYTHING to do about it, even in theory, is something any thinking person in the “West’ should be very concerned about.

When countries are democracies, for good or ill they get the governments they deserve. With the bunch of puddin’ heads suggested by those poll results there is a lot of trouble ahead for some of these countries (not mine for the moment, but this is a minority government…) until something radical happens to make things better or much worse.

A more reasonable government could arise in Iran (odds low without outside “assistance”) or they could get nukes and give one or more to somebody who wants to use it against us. It’s not hard for me to see which option I’d prefer, and I don’t see a lot of others right now.

Personally I don’t look forward to the idea of another big war either, but with the noises Iran has made/is making and the governments’ increasing lack of relevance to the Iranian population, there may be no decent alternative. There is a long history of governments whipping up external trouble to distract from domestic trouble, and Iran seems to be on that road. How far they want to go on it will likely determine how hostile things get.

Changing topics slightly, Hamid Karzai gave a very effective speech to Canadian Parliament today, dealing fairly effectively with the self-interested political statements of certain groups (see back a few posts). NATO is not in Afghanistan for fun or profit, but because it’s the way to keep the forces that wish us ill from re-establishing there.

Others may wish to look at it as restoring a functional country to the world, but the end result is the same, and both are accomplished the same way, fighting fire with (more) fire. And now that we’re at last sending some tanks to Afghanistan, that’s exactly what we’ll be able to do more effectively.