The Upcoming War in Iran

The International Atomic Energy Agency recently released a report showing that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon but that it has taken steps consistent with developing one. On Monday, President Obama addressed the IAEA report and stated that the use of force against Iran was definitely on the table. The question now is, do we want to start a war with Iran?

The Security Council is not likely to authorize the use of force because China and Russia have publicly taken positions against it. In fact, Russia’s foreign minister pointed out that the IAEA report feels a lot like all the “evidence” that Iraq was developing a nuclear weapon in 2003. And we all know how well that ended.

The idea of starting a war with Iran, however, has been kicking around well before the IAEA report came out. One year ago this month, David Broder wrote a shockingly amoral editorial in the Washington Post suggesting that a war with Iran would be a great way to stimulate the economy. He wrote, “With strong Republican support in Congress for challenging Iran’s ambition to become a nuclear power, [Obama] can spend much of 2011 and 2012 orchestrating a showdown with the mullahs. This will help him politically because the opposition party will be urging him on. And as tensions rise and we accelerate preparations for war, the economy will improve.”

It’s a win-win, as long as you don’t consider all the men women and children on all sides who will inevitably die. Unfortunately, so far, everyone is playing along with Broder’s scenario. The Republican debate this week on national security fit right into place. So did Evan Bayh who suggested last week that Israel could do the first strike and thereby commit the U.S. to finishing the war.

The possibility that Iran could get a nuclear weapon is disturbing, but the prospect that the U.S. might start another preemptive war is unacceptable. The time to stop the next war is now.