BlackFive

The biggest problem we face today is not Iraq; it is the inability of the American people to look beyond what they are doing for the Super Bowl. Our collective attention span and ability to think or act strategically is small to the point of being non-existent. We have the ability to focus like a laser during times of great crisis, but once that burning sensation subsides we just want our MTV. That's where we sit right now as our reserves of intestinal fortitude have been eroded by the steady drumbeat of death and destruction. Sadly most of it has been real, albeit trumped up and vastly over-covered by a media wholly consumed with ending not just this imperial adventure but slapping a Vietnam-like proscription against any use of military force at all.

That would be a bad thing if it only affected our prospects in Iraq, unfortunately Iran has been making major efforts all over the region and we just don't want to hear about it.

Bryan at Hot Air notes Iranians were scarfed up in Gaza where they were fomenting another civil war. That makes three in the past three years with Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon and now Hamas in Palestine. We have shaped charge IEDs manufactured in Iran that are killing our own troops, and their fingerprints are all over the sectarian violence. They are moving right along with their nuke building and consistently thumb their noses at any international oversight. Heck the Russians have said they will continue helping them with their nuke program, in the interest of peaceful energy alternatives of course.

The threats and casus belli that Iran represents are in many ways greater than those from Sadaam, but we will get no audience when we detail them. The press/left immediately start in with a "same as it ever was" argument saying this is identical to the run up to Iraq. The public just wants everyone to shut up so they can watch American Idol and the result is a lack of options to face the real dangers in the Middle East. Americans pine for those carefree days when Clinton fiddled and the streets ran with false internet gold, but pining is best left to Norwegian Blues missing the fjords. We face an enemy who has lost any fear that we can hurt them. They see a worn-out America that just needs a little lie down, not another enemy to deal with.

We can certainly ignore Iran and curl up on the couch with a blankie. The wake up call from that nap involves a nuclear-armed Iran, sweet dreams everyone.