Lost in the Shuffle...

Hidden amongst the indignant howling over gun control, weapons sales that never should have taken place, stress management in the workplace, the alleged lack of psychiatric help for disturbed individuals at our institutions of higher learning, and the completely ineffective rationalization and defense of the political machinations of the Executive branch on the Judicial branch of our government are two episodes that likely will have greater impact farther into the future than any of these things: the obvious and inflammatory taunting of the Iranian Nation and people by John McCain (pretty much topping any of the cowboy invective uttered by the Shrub) and the start of construction of a wall designed to separate Sunni Iraqis from their Shite neighbors in order to minimize violence between the two.

The fact the John McCain (the lost fourth Wilson brother) had this witty alternate version of one of the Beach Boys greatest songs so readily handy to unveil for a group of his veteran friends shows that the prospect of taking such action against Iran is in the forefront of his mind and there is a very ready and willing mindset to follow through at the slightest provocation (this actually may be in the process of occurring as I write this). In the self quoting spirit of Arthur, I'd like to harken back to this post of mine from early March:

Iran is not an immediate threat to the United States or its allies in the region. IF Iran is pursuing nuclear enrichment technology for the purpose of developing a weapons program in addition to an energy program, it is not an offensive act. It is an act of defense motivated by the fact that Iran is now surrounded by declared and undeclared nuclear powers: Russia to the North, Pakistan, India and China to the East, Israel to the West, and the United States to the South in the Persian Gulf with an disproportionately sized naval armada.

If there were a situation where the United States was surrounded in such a manner (Canada and Mexico possessing proven nuclear weapons and another major power such as China or Russia having placed a similarly sized force in the Gulf of Mexico) I'm sure that the United States would be rattling its nuclear sabers, and if the U.S. didn't have nuclear weapons, it certainly would be pursuing that technology as vehemently as Iran and most likely more so, all the while defending its inherent right to that technology and the right to possess it for use as a DETTERENT. This is the reason the U.S. gives for possessing nuclear weapons (despite the fact that it is the only nation to have actually used them on another country) and yet it tries to deny other countries with a legitimate case for possessing nuclear weapons as a DETTERENT the opportunity to do so.

Justin had some similar thoughts in this post following the serenade of the VFW in Murrells Inlet:

I know the Iranians appreciate the humor, just as we would find it uproariously funny if Iranian President Ahmaninejad or some other relatively well known Iranian politician who wanted to become the Iranian leader sang about bombing America in front a laughing crowd. We Americans eat that kind of shit up! What would be even funnier is if Iran invaded Canada and Mexico, sent Iranian battleships off the coast of the U.S. to conduct war exercises using high tech bomber planes, conducted clandestine raids and sponsored terror attacks on U.S. soil, and so on.

And Brian offers these thoughts about how it's going over in Tehran and the rest of the sovereign nation that is Iran:

I don't know what the reaction to the McCain video has been in Iran. But since they're the weaker nation, if their reaction is anything other than passive acceptance of our dear senator's foolishness, then our reaction to their reaction will determine whether this becomes a big deal or not.

The World wonders...

As far as the newest no bid boondoggle of a project in Iraq, I will yield to Tristero in this entry at Digby's Blog:

the American military is building a wall to physically separate a despised minority from their neighbors in order to protect them. And vice versa.

But let's not infer the worst here. After all, history teaches us that sealing off ghettos does reduce violence. That's simply an indisputable fact. For example, attacks against Sunni Jews declined markedly and rapidly under the Nazis. Had they not built walls around the ghettos, which enabled an entire Jewish population of a given city to be quickly rounded up and sent off to the camps, attacks on Jews would have gone on for much, much longer.

Seriously, is this the best way to show the Iraqis how to govern themselves, police themselves, and live amongst themselves? By building barriers to keep them separated from each other? What an example we're setting for the rest of the world...