Rudolph the Long Nosed Ex-Mayor

Rudolph was on Meet the Press this week. Not the red nosed reindeer. More of a Pinocchio metaphor anyway and that is not a slur on his heritage. My son is half Neopolitan. This was Giuliani and he tried to say that the war in Afghanistan, deposing Saddam, and Libya “raising the white flag” were the reasons that Iran stopped it’s nuclear program four years ago. Where did he get that? Or, is he just making it up. As soon as he said it, he backed away from it, after Tim Russert paraphrased what he had just said and then he said it again, as if denying a fabrication and then repeating it makes it okay to, well, lie.

In fact Iran helped us with Afghanistan and that was in 2002, not 2003, when they reportedly stopped their nuclear program. That was before Ahmedinajad.

The war in Iraq put us in the position where we cannot use military action against Iran because our resources are tapped. It also led to the rise of a more radical face in Iran, Ahmedinajad, who used the idea of developing nuclear weapons as a weapon itself.

And Libya? A decade of sanctions and UN resolutions were the reasons that Libya finally gave up its attempts to develop nuclear weapons. That makes it a better example than the others. A country that has been hostile and that was trying to develop a nuclear program folds under the pressure of sanctions and the political problems created by the sanctions.

When it comes to Iran, we need to be focusing on the cosmopolitan middle class, and showing them high tech carrots, iPhones for everyone, delivered from the American people to them. We respect your religions. We support brotherhood with you. We want to attend your universities and invite you to attend ours. We want to share our medical knowledge and ask that you share yours with our people. We want to enhance your business opportunities and want you to help us with ours.

Said Arikat, the Palestinian negotiator asked that Ahmedinajad stop calling for the destruction of Israel and call for a Palestinian state. We should encourage the population of Iran to support such ideas and cast out those who do not.

To some, these thoughts probably seem idealistic. What is more idealistic is to think that threatening Iran with “the military option,” whatever that is, will make the population there turn to a less radical leadership and desire cooperation with the west. Now THAT is idealistic dreaming. Or is it, wishing upon a star.