Sounds like the title of a really good or really awful thriller, doesn’t it?
Let me bring you up to speed on what happened.
With a hotly contested election still raging in Israel, embattled prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to make an impromptu visit to US Congress, in a desperate bid to show his voters that he can dictate US foreign policy better than his rivals can.
Which, in his defense, is probably true.
After (yet another) fear-mongering speech on the dangers of a nuclear Iran, Netanyahu received the kind of tearful, thunderous applause that’d normally be reserved by preteen girls for their favorite boy band.
Like this, but so much more so…
Still giddy from it all, 47 Republican members of congress decided to write Iran a viciously snotty letter, declaring that in spite of whatever present negotiations Iran currently had made with the Obama administration, they would continue to oppose ’em.
Which of course touched off a ****storm of stupidity, petulance, and vindictiveness.
Many liberals have labeled these 47 Congressmen as “traitors” for directly contravening the Obama administration’s actions. See, only the executive branch of American government (the office of the president) can officially set foreign policy, and the fact that these congressmen have sent this letter could be interpreted as an constitutional action with the calculated intent of sabotaging national interests.
Only that’s ****ing stupid.
As much as the folks at AlterNet might howl and wail, the letter (as utterly childish as it was) doesn’t do a whole lot more than thumb noses at Iran and Obama. Counterproductive? Certainly- but not treasonous. What’s more, there’ve been plenty of Democrats who’ve done the same thing- just look at Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Syria in 2007 during her term as Speaker of the House.
And besides, do they really give a damn? The Democratic Party has repeatedly sworn its undying and unconditional devotion to Israel. It’s not like these 47 Republicans have written anything that a Democrat hasn’t fervently declared- heck, it’s part and parcel of the party’s foundational policy.
Still from the Democrat National Convention in 2008
But of course, none of this is to be taken to meant that those 47 congressmen aren’t idiots. They totally are.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- the fear of a nuclear Iran has no basis in reality. If Iran gets a nuke, Israel is the last place it’d hit. Why? Because of this:
This is the Dome of the Rock, the 3rd holiest site in Islam. Do you honestly believe that a deeply Islamic state would nuke one of the holiest and most revered locations in its faith?
Of course not.
And then there’s this:
Palestinians, who make up the vast majority of the local population. Any bombing would slaughter far more Palestinians than anyone else, as well as irradiating the Holy Land for decades. Do you seriously think Iran is going to do that?
Of course not.
At this point, the only one with any sense seems to be the Iranian foreign minister, who accurately and authoritatively dismissed the Republican letter as “a propaganda ploy with no legal value”.
So on one hand, we’ve got a bunch of memory-impaired hypocrites throwing a tizzy over nothing and on the other we’ve got people who are just… so ****ing dumb. What have we learned from this whole embarrassing affair?
Well, probably nothing. As much as it pains me, this whole pointless slap-fight has done nothing but exposure the wretched state of affairs, as if any of us weren’t aware already. Still, life springs hope eternal. Maybe there’s enough of a sense of dignity left in the American political conciseness to still feel a twinge of shame at all this ludicrous display.
Time will tell.
