Two retired American Generals and one Admiral, that is, speaking out about Iran:
In a letter to the Sunday Times newspaper, the three former officers urged President Bush to open talks, “without preconditions,” with the Iranian government in a bid to find a diplomatic solution.
The signatories were retired Lt. Gen. Robert G. Gard, a senior military fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation in Washington, D.C.; retired Marine Gen. Joseph P. Hoar, former head of U.S. Central Command; and Vice Adm. Jack Shanahan, former director of the Center for Defense Information.
The officers said an attack “would have disastrous consequences for security in the region, coalition forces in Iraq and would further exacerbate regional and global tensions.”
“The current crisis must be resolved through diplomacy,” they said.
And guess who supports them on that crazy diplomacy thing? These two guys at the conservative Cato Institute:
Evidence suggests Iran wouldn’t pull nuclear trigger
By JUSTIN LOGAN and TED GALEN CARPENTER
Cato Institute… First, Ahmadinejad is not a Stalinesque — or even Putinesque — center of power in Tehran. The Iranian president has increasingly been a target of official criticism, and recent reports indicate that he may not remain in power to the end of his four-year term.
Iran’s powerful Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is a more significant political player than Ahmadinejad. Though Khamenei also embraces odious ideas, it is important to evaluate Iran’s actions, not just its rhetoric. […]
The evidence indicates that Iran’s leadership remains rational today. Though it would certainly terrify the Israeli population, Iran has never passed chemical or biological weapons to Hezbollah or other client organizations.
Why? Most likely because they fear Israeli reprisals. And if the Iranians fear Israel’s response to a chemical or biological attack, they are certainly aware how much more severely Israel would respond to a nuclear assault, whether by proxy or directly launched from Iran.
Never in history have leaders made a decision that was absolutely certain to destroy their own country in a matter of hours. Until someone can come up with definitive evidence that Iran is the first such country, we must work from the assumption that [Iran would not attack Israel with nuclear weapons] is right.
Such a sad day. These damn Generals (and the Navy guy) and right wing libertarian think tank scholars (previously good red-blooded American patriots one must assume), have thrown in their lot with those dirty, f***ing hippies of the antiwar movement in hating America. What’s the world coming to?
