Kristol laments lost cause for war

Libby Spencer

Our favorite nutty neo-con, Bill Kristol, dropped this gem today. You know in saner times a guy who talked like this would be under psychiatric care and medicated with massive doses of thorazine. Think Progress has the video, which I urge to watch because it loses some impact without the physical mannerisms, but here's the key quote.

KRISTOL: It’s a real humiliation for the British and, of course, the Europeans didn’t stand by them either. And it sent the signal to the worst forces in Iran. To me there are splits in the Iranian government. It has strengthened the worst forces in Iran by making them think they can push the West around. We came closer to war with Iran this week. The only way to avoid war is to have the Iranians believe the west is tough enough to threaten them with war and tighten the economic pressure. After the Germans refused to help the British, after the British refused to do anything, after we’ve been very passive, we’re closer to war with Iran — if either war or an Iran with nuclear weapons.

He wishes we were closer to war. He and his AEI buddies have been sitting around salivating like a pack of ravenous dogs around a freshly killed carcass ever since the British captives were taken, just thinking about those military strikes.

Can't you just picture them lounging in the easy chairs at the club, sipping cocktails and plotting how this time they were going to get the war that Jimmy Carter cheated them of in the 80s. Kristol's disappointment in the speedy and diplomatic resolution of the affair couldn't be more apparent.

All this talk of weakness and humilation is merely projecting his own sense of failure at having incorrectly predicted the outcome again. Not that George didn't try his best to make his little dreams of war a reality. Fortunately for us, cooler heads prevailed and Blair wisely told Bush to back off.

It takes a lot more guts to hold your fire than it does to pull the trigger. Blair stood down Tehran and got his people back, unharmed and in a reasonable amount of time without having to fire a shot. How is that weak? And since when is such a positive outcome as a result of diplomacy instead of armed intimidation, humiliating? For the first time in four years, I'm actually kind of proud of Blair for pulling it off.

The humilation is Kristol's. How far from human decency has he fallen that he can so emotionlessly suggest the captives should have been sacrificed for the good of his war? He was instrumental in devising the plan that failed so completely, it put us into this mess. Little wonder he reacts with such bitterness when others figure out how to repair what he and his PNAC brethen have so badly broken.

[cross-posted to The Reaction]