Before we blame our own government.

There has a lot of Sturm und Drang over our foreign policy of the last several years. The ‘War on Terrorism’ (which should be referred to as WOT?) has us in both Afghanistan and Iraq. There was a lot of opposition to us entering Iraq (not so much as I remember with Afghanistan). Lately, we’ve been hearing drumbeats about Iran - the country the would be the meat in our veritable sh*t sandwich.

I’m of two minds on this.

First off, I recognize that there is a flourishing young population of Iranians who are not entirely connected to their governments’ policies. These are people I wish we could find a way to reach out to, sincerely because I do not bear them malice and I don’t feel in any way that these are people who would be our enemies.

Second, I cannot deny the regime which runs the nation of Iran is not necessarily a stabilizing force in the Southwestern Asia and ultimately we are going to have to deal with the issue of this conservative government whether we like to or not.

In the last several weeks, I was surprised when the topic of Iran came up during the course of casual conversation, the people I was discussing the topic with were convinced the current administration would take some form of overt action to resolve the current issue of nuclear technology and possible weapons development in the Iranian nation. The most common view espoused was the administration would at some point deal with the issue by bombing or taking some other covert action to destroy those facilities within Iran necessary for the nation to realize its goals.

To say there are many our own country who would find this solution totally unacceptable is an understatement. We as a nation are not built for the long haul. We have the attention and commitment of fruit flies at times and the media f our land is proof in this in the way news shows are packaged to bring forth the crisis du-jour in order to generate excitement and ratings. I really wish it were different but, it’s what our nation has become.

We are media babies, weaned on reality tv, daytime fare like Jerry Springer, Oprah or the People’s Court. Sucked into things more for the spectacle than anything else. Our political races have become the modern day equivalent of beauty contests as witnessed by the telegenic factor of our candidates (I really couldn’t imagine a Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon or Dwight D Eisenhower being elected today as they were all so unflatteringly unpleasing in visage).

So, before our backs get up over what we may do, I bring to your attention this latest column by Nat Hentoff. Hentoff could hardly be called a fan of the administration but, take the time out to read about the people which our leaders would have us stand in opposition to and ask yourself if by continuing to turn a blind eye we are not enabling such transgressions?

June 29, 2006, a court in the Islamic Republic of Iran sentenced Malak Ghorbany, a 34-year-old mother of two, to a brutal death by stoning after finding her guilty of adultery… Two men who were found guilty of murder in the same court were only given jail sentences of six years… The size of the stones used during the execution are required to be…. not so large that they would kill a woman too quickly, nor so small that they would fail to cause serious injury or pain .