Iran: World Sliding Towards War

Goldberg: World 'sliding toward war'

Commentary

The Atlantic

by: Jeffrey Goldberg

Monday, February 6, 2012

 

Atlantic Monthly contributor Jeffrey Goldberg says the anti-Semitic rhetoric of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is likely to drive Israel to attack Iran. Photo Credit:AP

Since we seem to be moving (once again) toward some sort of confrontation with Iran, I thought it would be worthwhile to revisit one of the main reasons the world is sliding toward war. ... I believe there is still time for the U.S., working in concert with its allies, to bring about a change in Iranian behavior. I also believe that President Obama is serious when he says that all options are on the table. But I'm also opposed to the idea that we should give up and move toward a policy of containing Iran. I don't think containment would work. ...

One of the problems with the anti-attack crowd is that it downplays the threat Iran poses, particularly to Israel, but also to the U.S., to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and to Iran's non-Jewish neighbors as well. ...

There is another argument floating across the Internets, that Ahmadinejad's words don't matter, that he is not the one in charge of the nuclear program, and that his anti-Semitism is far more extreme than that of other regime leaders. Well, here is the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, speaking a couple of days ago: "The Zionist regime is a cancerous tumor that should be removed and will be removed, God willing." Read the original article at The Atlantic