Lose Afghanistan, Lose Pakistan, Lose Iran, Lose It All, by Jason Lewis in today's American Thinker.
The stakes in the Middle East are higher than they've ever been, and Obama's foreign policy failures just push us closer to the brink of a war we may not be able to avoid. Two particular areas are of particular concern: In Afghanistan, "Gen. McChrystal wants more troops. Obama doesn't want to send them because he needs the money to promote his socialist take-over of America. You can't have both." And in Iraq,"Ahmadinejad will have nuclear weapons too, and he already has enough radioactive materials for a dirty nuke, a low-tech weapon that can spread terror everywhere in the world". Some have speculated (and I believe) that Iran will have a nuke within one year.
Until then, we have a deadlock of sorts:
"If Israel attacks Tehran, the Iranians will try to retaliate, either by a missile strike or by local attacks using Hezbollah and Hamas. If Israel does not attack Tehran, the Iranians will try to attack Tel Aviv anyway, because it is the key plank in their ideological doctrine, the one they have been chanting about for thirty years. For Israel it's just in the difference in the timing of an inevitable war. It's damned if you do, damned if you don't. So it makes more sense for Israel to attack first, and expect to defend immediately against Iranian retaliation. It is far, far better to do that before the Iranians get actual nukes."
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[But,] Will the United States back Israel in a preemptive war? If so, and if preemptive strikes succeed, we can keep the rogues in their place. Beating down Iranian nukes will signal to the other rogues that nuclear weapons are not the ace in the hole they think it is.
That is why Afghanistan and its neighbor Pakistan, AfPak, is a historic watershed moment. If we lose in Afghanistan and the Taliban win, and they can combine with their brethren in Pakistan to get control over a nuclear weapon, and we will see an Al Qaeda look-alike with nukes. That's what Cheney and Bush were warning us about. India can't afford that, and they are quickly arming up. China can't afford it either.
The same logic applies to Iran. Ahmadinejad has been threatening not just Israel and the United States, but the Saudis and Gulf States. The Saudis have financed Pakistan's nuclear program to be able import them instantly, as soon as Tehran gets its own.
It is the United States that keeps its finger in this dike. Pull that finger out, and we'll see a flood.
So we lose, and the world does, too, if we don't beat down the threat. If we succeed in defending the world in alliance with other countries, we will survive and the gangster regimes will be held back."
Right now, our best bet is to keep the nukes out of the hands of terrorists like Ahmadinejad, and to defeat the terrorists in Afghanistan. But, Obama's refusal to stand up to anyone on the national scene leaves me with but one conclusion: He's really a war hawk, driving us ever-closer to war with his own ineptitude.
