McCain's Iran Policy Causes Violence in Iraq

John McCain claims to want the violence in Iraq to end, but his policies actually encourage Iran to foment violence in Iraq.

An earlier post here explained how McCain’s dangerous, naïve, simplistic, cowboy foreign policy encouraged Iran to nuclear-arm ASAP. McCain's faulty positions encourage Iran to foment violence in Iraq:

-- his bomb Iran “joke”,

-- his embrace of his spiritual advisor Rod Parsley who says the US was founded to destroy Islam,

-- his plan to keep a permanent military base in Iraq,

-- his don’t-bother-me-with-the-facts conflation of Sunni and Shia, and

-- his positions that subsiding violence means we need high troop levels in Iraq, and escalating violence means we need high troop levels in Iraq.

What, Iran must wonder, would the US do with its 150,000 Iraq-based troops if Iraq enjoyed complete peace?

Iran reasonably assumes it MUST stoke the violence in Iraq as a matter of self-defense: if it fights the US in Iraq, it won’t have to fight the US in Iran. After all, the US invaded Iraq without provocation. Why not Iran, too? And Bush has often posited that we fight in Iraq so we won’t have to fight at home. Iran probably learned from those statements.

Under McCain’s stated policy, complete peace in Iraq will not even cause the US military to leave. So, what possible motivation would Iran have to foster peace in Iraq?

And McCain? He saber rattles, “joking” about bombing Iran. He appears to be setting up a pretext to attack – that Shia Iran supports Sunni al Qaeda.

Under McCain’s policies, Iran would act irrationally to do anything other than foment violence in Iraq.

Meanwhile, in last week's dust-up about Bush’s Knesset “appeasement” comments, McCain said Obama must explain what Obama would even talk to Iran about. With possible nuclear armament, violence in Iraq, and threats against Israel hanging in the balance, is McCain serious that he can’t even conceive of what the US would talk with Iran about?

Obama is willing to talk with enemies before employing military force. As one with a son in the National Guard, I’d like the talk to be exhausted before other steps are considered.