Rudy and His Loonies

Pat Buchanan has an interesting column at the conservative website Humanevents in which he showcases the extremism inherent in Rudy Guiliani's rhetoric. He also talks about the credentials and views held by his advisers. It appears he is all set to repeat Iraq, only this time in Iran, a country three times its size with already a limited democratic set-up and a Shia majority ruled by a Shia-dominated government, a very different situation from Iraq. There is not much talk of any rebuilding, only of an attack which of course will set the Middle East and much of the Islamic world on fire and probably take oil prices spiraling into the sky. Buchanan thinks that Guiliani's victory will very likely set the stage for another military campaign, this time with even more ominous portents for the world which will make the current Bush administration look cautious and 'soft' by comparison.. What is worse is that he has publicly disavowed a commitment to even a semblance of evenhandedness in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even the Bush administration, despite the unilateral assurances given publicly to Sharon on Palestinian concessions, has not gone that far. Clearly if one believes that the US and its allies are now staring into the abyss, if this rhetoric has even an element of truth, then a Guiliani adminstration may really take the plunge forcing the entire world to actually wallow in it. A thoughtful write-up. Check it out.