Exterminate all the brutes!

Thank you Sy Hersch for preventing me from sleeping at night (as if I needed any help).

What a grand idea to punish someone for attempting to build nuclear weapons with nuclear weapons. In strictly basic terms, our objection to Iran's nuclear program is: "Nuclear weapons are awful and we can't trust you to use them responsibly."

To make this point our leaders are considering blowing the shit out of government targets and nuke facilities in Iran with tactical nukes? "Do as Uncle Sam says, not as he does!"

Many are poo-poohing the idea that Bush would pull the trigger, and are claiming Sy Hersch has gone 'round the bend. To them I say this is the same Bush who started an unnecessary war by manipulating threat levels--the same Bush who thinks God tells him what to do, and who thinks the End Times are nigh. The same Bush who does whatever the fuck he wants regardless of the Constitution. Do I think he'll do it? No. Do I think that there are people in the Pentagon drawing up contingency plans in case he decides to do it? Hell, yes. I've read To Win a Nukeyoular War, after all, and know that somebody somewhere is always keeping those options current.

Perhaps, some are suggesting, this is merely saber-rattling to ease things on the diplomatic front. Whatever. The Iranians are anything but stupid; they can see we're tied down in Iraq. They know that tomorrow they could tell al-Sadr to start shooting and suddenly we lose 100s of troops a month. They understand that a conventional military option is off the table for Bush right now.

Threatening to use nukes on Iran will simply encourage them to develop a deterrent as quickly as possible. Given that this is a catastrophically moronic diplomatic strategy, it's likely a reasonable interpretation of Administrative motives.

Talk about immanetizing the eschaton!