Jesuit Says Of Roman Catholic Santorum, "Never Having Had Catholic Higher Education"

Among the warriors there are two schools of thought. “The simple argument is that Iranian leaders supposedly don’t think like the rest of us” they are religious fanatics who value martyrdom more than life, and cannot be counted on to act rationally.” Rick Santorum says their “theology” promotes martyrdom. (Santorum, never having had Catholic higher education, seems unaware of the “glory” of martyrdom in Christianity.) Pillar answers that Iran’s leaders have demonstrated that they want to preserve their power in this life — not the next. And more evil leaders than Iran’s—in Russia and China — have been rational enough to restrain themselves in response to deterrence diplomacy.

The more-sophisticated sounding argument among policy-debating intelligentsia is based on a lot of untested “what-ifs” and “they could” arguments.  They “could” give nukes to terrorists or sell them on the black market; but “nuclear weapons are most useful in deterring aggression against one’s own country,” it would be foolish to give or sell them to someone else. At any rate, says Pillar, “worst-case speculations are not adequate justifications for going to war.”

We foolishly imagine—as we did when we invaded Iraq—that an air bombardment is the key to victory. In fact, only a land invasion and occupation could accomplish the stated goals of the Iranian war.  Get out the map of the Middle East, study the land masses of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran, and ask ourselves if we want to add a third war to the two already killing our young men and women and countless innocent civilians, as well as crippling our economy and eroding our honor.

Raymond A. Schroth, S.J.

Link (here) to the America Mgaazine blog post entitled Let Iran Have It's bomb.