Editorial Statement for April 2007: No War in Iran

In the weeks and months before Iran had taken the British sailors hostage, the Bush administration had seemed to show signs of wanting to take the war on terror to Iran. Right here and right now, I say "Don't do it!"

The main reason: We aren't finished in Iraq. Why start a new trouble spot when we aren't done with the old trouble spot?

Look at a map of Iraq and Iran (source):















See how much bigger Iran is than Iraq? Think of all the problems that we've had so far in Iraq. Now triple it. That's how much more of a problem that a stay in Iran would be than Iraq. If we're lucky, it would only be triple the trouble. I'm only making that guess based on the fact that Iran looks to be at least 3 times as big. Actually, imagine us trying to manage BOTH Iraq and Iran. You forsee a long, long stay, don't you? If we go into Iran, then my grandkids would probably still be serving there, and I don't even have kids yet.

So Mr. Bush, don't do it. There are other, better, and more effective ways of dealing with the terrorists than going into yet another Middle Eastern country when we haven't finished with the Middle Eastern country that we started in. The main problem with our war in Iraq is that we have largely put all of our anti-terrorist eggs in one basket when the terrorists are located in more areas of the world than just Iraq. What good would it do to expand the basket that we are putting our anti-terrorist eggs into when the terrorists are still located elsewhere?