War not always answer, contrary to GOP beliefs
Fresh off his lie-filled debate “victory” last week, Mitt Romney spent this week flexing his foreign policy muscles. Tough talk on Iran, echoed in the United Nations by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has been one of his major talking points, alongside a pledge to bloat an already bloated defense budget with trillions of dollars.
The lineup of Romney’s foreign policy advisers reads like a who’s who of neo-conservative ideology. Holdovers from the George W. Bush administration fill its ranks, promising that a Romney presidency will see the same foreign defense policy that brought us the disastrous occupation in Iraq.
So, military adventurism in Iran. There’s no potential way that could backfire on us. The Iraq War, built upon a lie and unfunded, cost us an estimated $2.4 trillion and the lives of nearly 4,500 American soldiers. This fails to factor in the untold thousands of innocent Iraqis killed and that the shattered Iraq became a haven for terrorists only after we invaded.
Iran wants only to claim the nuclear power promised to an American-backed dictator in the 1970s, and with it the ability to enter a new age in industry. Instead, it faces hostility and aggression from Israel and the United States. The West has spent 30 years interfering with Iranian sovereignty and denying it the resources needed to enter the 21st century.
Certainly Iran has not helped itself with its inflammatory, extremist rhetoric. But these are only words. It’s time to shut the war hawks up and treat Iran with common sense.
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