Tuesday, April 22, 2008

St. Akepsimas and other things Persian

St. Akepsimas.

Today is the feast of St. Akepsimas, a fourth-century Persian bishop who was martyred during the persecution of King Shapur II.

Speaking of that part of the world, it seems that Hillary Clinton is as much of a hawk as her votes on the Iraq war and the Kyle-Lieberman amendment have indicated she may be. She said today that if Iran were to attack Israel using nuclear weapons during her presidency, "we would be able to totally obliterate them." This continues what she said last week concerning the same hypothetical situation would result in "massive retaliation," which she clarified last night by saying, "their use of nuclear weapons against Israel would provoke a nuclear response from the United States."

Now, I agree that a nuclear-armed Iran is far from desirable, and I deplore Ahmadinajad's rhetoric about Israel. Still, if Iran were to have that technology and were to use it against Israel, Israel would be both capable and willing to respond itself. Iran knows this, so it's unlikely that they would attack Israel. At any rate, there's no need for a US guarantee of any sort. Even if we had to retaliate, do we want to speak so easily about "totally obliterating" a large country?

Iran has a population of 65,875,223. Almost a quarter of that is fourteen years old and under. "Totally obliterate." Makes me feel sort of sick.

Pennsylvania, are you listening?

In related news, an indignant response condemning 9/11 conspiracy theories: Al-Qaeda tells Iran to knock it off.

St. Akepsimas, pray for us.


Coming soon: tattoo update.

5 comments:

Garpu said...

I needed a break from the dissertation, so I put on the evening news, only to have it filled with stuff about the primaries. Wondering if it's too early in the night to start drinking.

Liam said...

Jen:

Certainly not, not even on the West Coast.

cowboyangel said...

Looks like Pennsylvania was listening. Give the Clintons credit - they know their redneck constituency.

Liam said...

Yeah... obviously it's nowhere near enough to make a difference for her -- but even if she got only 5% of the vote they would spin it as a victory.

I'm very grumpy today. Grumpy is my dwarf today.

Garpu said...

I'm burying myself in LISP, so I don't have to watch the news. Cheaper than drinking.