Bombs Away

Ackerman tackles John Bolton:

Yes, [by Bolton's logic] the Israeli bombs will only kill the bad Iranians. When patriotic Iranians of the opposition see Israeli F-16s raining death from above on Iranian targets, Bolton actually expects them to think, “Boom shack-a-lacka! Here come our Israeli liberators! Let them bomb whatever they like, since even though Mir Hussein Moussavi supports a nuclear program as part of a consensus opinion, I believe Israeli propaganda that says it has our best interests at heart! That’ll show Mahmoud Ahmadinejad! Did you hear that, Aunt Marjam? Aunt Marjam…?”

Bolton's position is at least consistent; and tactically speaking, this would probably be, as he suggests, the least damaging moment to make the strike. But the damage would nonetheless be real, the effectiveness of a strike highly questionable, the global terrorist blowback immense, and the initiation of a Third World War would instantly kill the Green Revolution and empower Ahmadinejad. But if the point of all this is not Iranian democracy but maximizing Israel's strategic security for the next couple of years (at the expense of its potential long-term extinction), why would Bolton care?