No More Adventures!

“No more adventures, I’m not going that way,” announced C-3PO as he split from his long time companion, R2-D2 in Star Wars: A New Hope. While C-3PO may have been the comic relief and resident coward of the ensemble cast that made up the Rebellion we all know and love, in this particular incident, he may have been quite wise. After everything he and his partner had been through, all C-3PO wanted to do was take the more direct and less dangerous path to salvation. There’s something to be said for the path of least of resistance.

Do you hear them? They were beating in the background of President George W. Bush’s inaugural address. Do you hear them? They beat a little louder every day. They are the war drums and this administration plays them like a child with a new Playstation 3. They are the war drums and this administration can’t seem to formulate any other strategy over their infernal racket.

They say war is diplomacy by another means. I myself have often referred to battlefields such as Baghdad as “chessboards”. The problem with this philosophy is it takes the humanity out of an event that has unalterable consequences on an entire host of people. These people whose lives will be torn asunder will suffer in a war that they didn’t plan and they didn’t want. The simple fact of the matter is that most Iranians do not want war with the United States or Israel. The Iranian populace is no different than you or I. The men love their families just as our men do. The women struggle for equality and validation just as our women do. Their children haven’t the foggiest clue what it’s all about just the same as our children. And that’s what makes the chessboard philosophy so painfully accurate. Our soldiers and their soldiers are nothing more than pawns in an internationally diplomatic game between the GOP in Washington and the Mullah’s in Tehran. Both of which we’d all, Americans and Iranians alike wish would, “take a flying leap,” as my mother would say.

We no longer live in a world where we can safely demonize one another. Despite what TV may show you, not every Iranian is an Al-Qaida operative chomping at the bit to destroy the “Great Satan”. Pick up a copy of “Reading Lolita in Tehran” or “Nine Parts of Desire” and you will see a very different Arab/Muslim/Persian world than the one we are shown on my beloved cable news programs. They are not the enemy. They are not monsters. They are not evil.

This is essentially what’s been part of the problem in Iraq. We’ve miserably lost the propaganda war. Try as they might, you cannot win a war without killing people. You cannot kill people unless you’ve demonized them and you can’t demonize people in the age of information. Only people who choose to be led like so much sheep will fall for cheap tricks of demonization and they are not going to win the war for us. Simply put, what barely worked for the war in Iraq and has proven itself to be short, will fall far shorter in Iran. While I understand and am for nuclear deterrence in the Middle East, I feel it’s a deadly game of chicken we are playing with Tehran. It may all just be saber rattling and inevitably Tehran could back down in the face of both American and European Union pressure. But what if they don’t? When does an adventure evolve into sound deterrence? When will Iranians cease to be human beings in the eyes of the voting American public?

In an article on Taipeitimes.com entitled, “UK wouldn't join US in `Iran adventure'”, the article states, “For all the stern words from Washington about possible military action against Iran if it fails to rein in its nuclear ambitions, the US would almost certainly have to mount such a campaign without the backing of Britain, its staunchest ally in Iraq, according to experts.”

You can bet money that the only country that would join us in an “adventure” would be the Israeli’s. They have the most to lose if Iran goes nuclear and surely they would lose whatever leverage they now have in the Middle East. And as a reminder, without that leverage, there would be no Israel. There would be no Israeli’s. There would be in fact a second holocaust. Let’s not forget that one of the objectives of the Mullah’s, the Wahhabist’s and the terrorists is to, “push Israel into the sea.” As much as I enjoy waxing humanitarian about the Iranian people, we cannot forget that millions of Israeli lives rest upon the shoulders of Washington and their “desire” to bring “democracy” to the Middle East.

For those keeping score, I do not want to see any more adventures. I do not want to see us at war with Iran nor do I want Iran (directly or by proxy) to escalate its war with Israel. The European Union has set itself up as the counterweight du jour against the United States. Russia is seeking to keep itself relevant in Central Asia and the Middle East. If we as a world truly share C-3PO’s sentiment of no more adventures than the time has come for both the EU and Russia to step forward and prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear arms. If they cannot pass this test, if they cannot contribute at least that much, then even without the UK, there will be yet another adventure.

God save us all.