The looming war with Syria and Iran
VDH on how to handle Syria and Iran, which are marching relentlessly towards serious war with steps that are reminiscent of both WWI and WWII:
Do not cut a deal with those two governments. They’re killing American soldiers through surrogates in Iraq. They’re trying to destablize Lebanon like they did in the 1980′s. They’re the source of most of the evil that’s now causing us problems from Afghanistan to Iraq. And this idea that you’re going to bring James Baker back, and that team back who gave us everything from Iran-Contra to jobs, jobs, jobs as the only reason we’re going to go into the Middle East, to flank the Jews. I could go on, but it’s a very sensitive point with me. I think a lot of us, Hugh, stood by this administration through thick and thin when the paleocons turned on them, when the liberal hawks turned on them, when the neocons are starting to bail. But my God, if you’re going to go into the Middle East, and put 130,000 Americans in harm’s way, fighting for democracy, and then you turn around and you appease those two governments who are killing people, I don’t think a lot of us are going to stand for that.
HH: Is this an Archduke Ferdinand moment with the assassination of Gemayel?
VDH: I think it may be. I really do. I think that Syria realizes that as soon as they saw that the United States was going to cease pressure on them, it was time to go in and start killing non-Shia politicians, reporters especially. They’ve killed journalists, they’ve killed T.V…it’s not just this Gemayel. It’s not just a Christian politician. They’ve been doing this for two years, killing, systematically, any critics. And they sense that they get a green light from us when we pull back. And I think it should be a wake up call for the United States, that when you go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, you don’t go to war in a half measure. You either go to war or you don’t go to war. And we’re in a war in Iraq, and we’re in war with, as the President said, Islamic-facism, and autocracy and dictatorship, and there’s no better examples than Iran and Syria….
HH: Now Michael Totten, a very fine writer who spent a lot of time in Lebanon, has pointed out that what is underway here is an attempt to make the government fall, because if you kill three cabinet members, they lack, under the constitution, they must collapse, and seek a new government. And there was a second assassination attempt today. This is clearly an attempt to have a coups, Victor Davis Hanson.
VDH: Yeah, it is. To subvert a democracy by killing the principal players, and then creating a climate of fear that no one will step forward. But it’s exactly what we’ve seen in Iraq the last three years.
HH: It’s what Hitler did.
VDH: It is exactly the same. And remember that what we’re seeing in Iraq today are Shia, with Iranian backing, killing Sunnis, and Sunnis, with Syrian backing, killing Shia. And both of these countries work hand in glove to destabilize, at their own benefit, what we’re trying to do in Iraq. And so we crossed…I mean, we crossed the rubicon a long time ago. We went to war in Iraq, and we’re there. Now we either give up and get out and appease these people, or we finish the job. And one of the ways you finish the job is you don’t have any, any, any dealings whatsoever with Syria.
The US of course can cut a phony “peace deal” with Iran and Syria regarding Iraq. Doing so would be tantamount to surrender, but that’s not really our point.
The point is that Iran and Syria will not stop. They are committed to destroying Lebanon if that is what it takes to complete the encirclement of Israel and to prepare the northern battlefield for the Second War of 33 Days — the war that is to destroy Israel.
Iran will have its war, of that there is no doubt. It is, after all, the one thing that Ahmadinejad has promised non-stop for years now. Our question is whether the US will humiliate itself beforehand by cutting a phony deal with Iran and Syria — only to see them launch a big proxy war within weeks or months, and further humiliate the country.