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The US/Iran War

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By any sane understanding of recent events, the US is now at war with Iraq.

Of course, it is an unconstitutional war. All of them since 1945 have been. Big deal.

What is odd is the way the commander-in-chief has been talking about this one. It is a manner of talking that stands out for its incoherence and malice (yes, those are mutually consistent facts) EVEN given the recent US history of acts of war initiated by unilateral C-in-C commands -- an altogether unlovely history, surely.

One statement stands out. When Iran threatened retaliation, POTUS replied that Iran "has never won a war, but never lost a negotiation." Huh? I guess this means that since HE is the artist of the deal, they have finally met their match, because he can beat them at their one strong point.

It is historical nonsense. Iran (fka Persia) has been winning wars at least since its conquest of Lydia in 546 BC. Yes, it was halted by the Athenians and Spartans working together a few years later, but most classicists will tell you that Persia was backing Sparta when those two allies fell out. So it in essence won that one via proxy.

Let's go back to Lydia. That Kingdom was ruled by a vain and wealthy man - a sort of Croesus. Actually, he WAS Croesus. What did Persia bring to the 'negotiation' table then? Lots of warriors, spears, and elephants.

Wikipedia has a handy List of Wars involving Iran. If I knew anyone who was tempted to take seriously the vain and wealthy General Bonespurs' views on world history, I would urge that person study the list.

Anyway: if we are seriously going head to head with Iran, in a way that will incidentally unite Iran with some of its long-time foes, such as Iraq, then we are in for a long and extremely nasty business.





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