Gen. Abizaid (Ret., of course) of CENTCOMM: "There are ways to live with a nuclear Iran."

[BurtWorm]

Dems criticize Bush for his poor use of rhetoric, even as they remain part of the foreign policy group-thinking establishment that would authorize military force so as not to seem weak.

But the former leader of Central Command tells the truth no one with any political power seems capable of speaking.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/18/AR2007101802394.html?nav=rss_politics


...

Some Democrats criticized Bush for an alarmist tone. "He continues to dial up the fear factor instead of reaching to bring this world together, to work together, to make sure that we can avoid World War III or any other war, for that matter, and end the war we're in that we can't get out of," Sen. Barbara Boxer (Calif.) said on MSNBC.

Yet analysts said the rhetoric disguises the fact that Democrats and Republicans generally agree on Iran while emphasizing different parts of the strategy. For the most part, leaders in both parties advocate diplomacy and sanctions to pressure Tehran and generally do not rule out the use of force should it be necessary. "There's some degree of consensus," said Ray Takeyh, a scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations. "I don't think anybody's looking forward to expanding the zone of conflict in the Middle East."

Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute said the debate overemphasizes the worst-case options. "Iran getting nuclear weapons would be like dying of cancer," he said. "Military strikes would be like dying of a heart attack." An attack on Iran might not even stop its nuclear program, he said, but "it would upset the world, it would bog us down, it would drive up the price of oil."

Some suggest that the United States may have to accept that it cannot stop Iran. "There are ways to live with a nuclear Iran," retired Gen. John Abizaid, former chief of U.S. Central Command, said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies last month. "Let's face it: We lived with a nuclear Soviet Union, we've lived with a nuclear China and we're living with nuclear powers, as well."

...

[BurtWorm]

1. kick

[The Stranger]

2. The notion that the Iranians would suddenly start launching any weapon is bigoted, racist, and

xenopbobic, to say the very least. They are smart people and adults who understand what they are dealing with. They would not suddenly start launching missles. Such a notion that brown people are savages is something I thought most were aware of as being racist and bigoted.

[sabra]

3. of course Bush said this week that if Iran had a nuke, WWIII would proceed...