A note to the 7.5 of you: This will be, sadly, my last post here at Independent Liberal. With work and other professional obligations, it has become too difficult to update this blog daily and maintain the kind of quality and frequency level I would demand of myself.
But no worries, I will remain a contributing blogger for PoliGazette, and I have launched a new personal blog for warehousing all of my old content and writings. I’ll blog at KevinSullivan.info occasionally, although probably not at the rate I did for this blog. Bookmark it, RSS it, or do whatever it is you people do to consume your bloggy news.
Thanks again to Dustin Metzger for the fantastic site design. He did a great job, and it was a pleasure to write all over his artwork.
Marc Ambinder does yeoman’s work dissecting the various statements from the Obama campaign on negotiating with Iran. The politicization of this issue is really annoying. The truth is that the Bush Admin has been in communication with Iran over Iraqi security. No enrichment preconditions. What Obama is proposing is not a huge departure from the Bush position.
I hate to admit it, but American Idol is pretty good television (seriously, seeing the dude’s brother bawling is too much for me)
The lovely people at The Huffington Post have allowed me to contribute a post to their site. Here’s a snip:
This narrative — or rather, exploitation — of American security dominates foreign policy discourse to this day. As a result, we get this week’s kerfuffle over the imminent (or not so imminent) threat posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Referring to Iran’s capabilities as “tiny,” Senator Barack Obama shook the proverbial beehive that passes as foreign policy dialogue in this country today. As a result, we get rather puerile debates over the size of Iran’s economy, or whether or not they’ve acted in a fashion similar to that of the Soviets or the Nazis. Not only does this litmus blur the legitimately horrible actions of these aforementioned regimes, but it makes dealing with lesser threats far more difficult.
The reality is that Iran has been contributing to regional instability in the Middle East for over 25 years. Attempted coups, assassination plots and terrorist finance are just the tip of an unstable iceberg that is revolutionary Iran. The Islamic republic founded by Ayatollah Khomeini extended what likely would’ve been a two year border incursion with Iraq into a nearly decade’s long war of attrition against what he viewed to be the Arab apostates in the region. The plan, from the Supreme Leader’s perspective, wasn’t merely to repel the Iraqis, but to also march on Lebanon and Jerusalem “through” Iraq (also known as “Operation Ramadan”). The girth of the regime’s economy has never prevented it from exporting their revolution all over the Middle East, nor has it given solace to our allies having to deal with Iran’s surrogates on the frontlines.
