A Word of Warning to Mr. Andy Dean

This past Tuesday, conservative radio talk show personality Andy Dean spoke at length about the new report concerning Iran and its nuclear program. Okay, “spoke” may not be quite the word I am looking for to describe what he did. “Rant” would be closer to the truth.

Mr. Dean ranted at length about the freshly gleaned information that supposedly proved Iran's intent and designs for acquiring nuclear weapons. He spoke of how dangerous nuclear weapons would be in the hands of a maniac like Ahmadinejad, who they were likely to be used against, the growing threat of nuclear proliferation, and the need for a military strike against Iran before those weapons are used. On the last point he was particularly adamant: Iran must be hit by somebody's bombs, either ours or Israel's, and it must be hit soon before it is too late. This is on top of his insistence on our continuation of military action in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the expansion of the global “war on terror.”

What?!


I will start my criticism of Mr. Dean with his strident calls for war. I have already spoken on a similar subject here in my article entitled War and (No) Peace, and my argument there applies here as well, I think. The eagerness to go to war on the part of some conservatives astounds me. Why is immediate military action always the answer? Have we received credible intelligence that the United States is under imminent threat of nuclear attack from Iran? Something tells me the answer is no. Also, Ahmadinejad I am sure is well aware that the neighboring nation of Israel (that he claims he is so bent on destroying) is loaded with enough nukes to wipe out several Irans. Would he take the chance to destroy Israel even if he had the weaponry to do it with? Possibly, maybe, and yet again maybe not. I would urge America and Israel to have the conscience to wait until an actual real and credible threat develops first before cratering Iran.

Secondly, let's take a step back for a second, Mr. Dean, and deal with the charge you brought against Iran concerning the threat of “nuclear proliferation” and your suggestion that said proliferation must be stopped at any cost. It's actually a darkly humorous conundrum, in a way: the United States develops a super weapon of unimaginable power based on well-documented scientific research, and then when everyone else naturally desires to get in on the nuclear action, we term their actions to acquire the bomb “nuclear proliferation.” Somehow, we have earned the exclusive right to brandish said super weapons and to morally license their use to other nations that we deem fit to carry the nuclear banner. If I may be blunt, I would say that any nation that desires to acquire nuclear weapons has proclaimed itself ready to unleash atomic hellfire on its enemies in the event of a war, and is therefore guilty by the intent to slaughter millions of innocent people.

Lastly, I will point out one simple fact: there is only one nation on earth that has ever used any nuclear weapons device during combat, and that nation is the United States. Russia has never used the bomb against anyone, neither has any terrorist organization in the world. Not only did we deem the bomb fit to use in warfare, we used two of them on the same nation within days of each other. In addition, both targets were primarily civilian population centers, not valuable military targets. And to top it off, there is strong evidence that America knew about crumbling Japanese leadership and their willingness to surrender long before we wiped out Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Ironic.

Be warned, Mr. Andy Dean. It is foolish to demand a military end to every conflict, and beyond foolish to demand that fruitless wars continue without end. Especially when those doing the fighting are armed with doomsday weapons.