Lets find another way to deal with Iran besides another war. This is getting real old, real fast.

In today’s Washington Post’s late edition there is an opinion piece by David Ignatius entitled With Iran, ‘The Cuban Missile Crisis in Slow Motion’  and it is here.  Basically Ignatius argues that Iran has cheated, is almost ready to have a nuclear weapon and war with Iran and the U.S. or U.N. with the U.S. participating as the major player is probably inevitable.

Now, let me get this straight.  We are at war in Iraq because we thought very definitely that the old regime that we deposed had Weapons of Mass Destruction. (Not!).

We are at war in Afghanistan because the Taliban, which are mostly based in hiding places in Pakistan, supposedly trained the El Qaeda operatives that were responsible for 9/11 in training bases in Afghanistan.  Of course, the Taliban have training bases all over the Middle East.  But that is off the point right now…suffice it to say, we are at war in Afghanistan too.

We are almost certainly secretly at war with the Taliban in Pakistan.  We deny it.  They deny it but we are almost certainly there.

Now, we are facing war with Iran according to Ignatius.  Can I ask a question?  Is there anyone that we will not go to war with in the Middle East concerning issues that the American people have a hard time seeing as critical?

I know…I know…the Iranian government just stole an election and they are therefore illegitimate and they have been our enemies since their revolution over there anyway.  We need to put them in their place.  They will have a nuclear weapon soon.  They are a danger.  And I am sure that they are.

I have to break the news to you in case you do not know.  Virtually anyone could have a nuclear weapon if they wanted.  Making the weapon, from what I have been told, is not the hard part.  The hard part is getting weapons grade plutonium to make the thing blow up…you know…the whole mushroom cloud thing…and once you have that, you are a nuclear power.  And once you are a nuclear power you get to sit at the table with the adults.

That is why they all want a nuclear weapon.

Now, I realize that this is heresy.  I realize that I will be called every name in the book for saying this.  But I am going to say it.

If Iran gets a nuclear weapon, I am not willing to send American troops into Iran to take it from them.

We are going to have to find another way to deal with this….because right behind Iran will be a half dozen other countries with a nuclear weapon within two years.  I guarantee it.

Lets try another approach for once.  Very quickly here we are going to have more National Guardsman in the Middle East than we presently have in the entire Midwest. 

Lets look for another approach.

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)