A Call for Common Sense

So the administration has launched its fall campaign to sell war with Iran to Americans -- using the same disinformation and lies that worked their magic so well with Iraq.

Needlenose tells Democrats that his advice is the same as it was in January:

The first words out of any Democrat's mouth when talking about Iran is that we shouldn't do what we did four years ago, which was to talk tough and then dive into a war without thinking through what would happen next. If Democrats have anything to say about it, we're going to use common sense, getting a grasp on the real scope of the problem and the realistic options for solving it, then telling the truth to the American people about both.

That moves the debate to the values that separate Democrats from Republicans, instead of our trying to beat them on their home turf. And when they complain that this isn't being manly or decisive enough, hit them again with the opening theme: Four years ago, the Republicans scared people with talk of mushroom clouds just before a congressional election, and as a result we've lost more than 2,200 2,600 Americans in a country that didn't have a single weapon of mass destruction. How has that made us safer?

In fact, our options regarding Iran are already limited because of Dubya's dangerously bad judgment. Remember when Bush famously talked about an "axis of evil" that mustn't be allowed to develop unconventional weapons? Two of those nations have kept rolling right along with their nuclear programs, while the Republicans talked tough and did nothing -- in part because our army is tied down in the one country that didn't have a nuclear program. Was that the best way to protect America?

It comes down to this: Tough talk without hard thinking cost American lives. Common sense says that we shouldn't trust our lives to that poor judgment ever again.