While wondering if Israel will save the world, the Anchoress steers us to
George F. Will who is siding with Alice of Wonderland fame:
In “Through the Looking Glass,” Alice says that she is unable to believe the White Queen’s claim to be 101 years old. The Queen responds, “Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.” Alice: “There’s no use trying, one can’t believe impossible things.” Queen: “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
Is Obama emerging as the White Queen? His naivete in full unfurl, he could say with the Queen, “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” Scary but George Will wonders if:
“Regarding Afghanistan, President Obama might believe he can effect a Houdini-like escape, uninjured, from the box his words have built.”
“Regarding Iran, he seems to believe that its leaders can be talked or coerced (by economic sanctions) out of their long, costly pursuit of nuclear weapons by convincing them that such weapons do not serve Iran’s “security.” ”
“Did Obama believe, as only the White Queen could, that Karzai had reformed?”
George Will raises the question, does Obama believe as he expects Iran to believe: possession of nuclear weapons would make Iran less secure.
Quoting Will:
“Defense Secretary Robert Gates says “the only way” to prevent a nuclear-capable Iran “is for the Iranian government to decide that their security is diminished by having those weapons, as opposed to strengthened.” But to accept that formulation requires accepting two propositions that would tax the White Queen’s powers of belief.”
One is that possession of nuclear weapons would make Iran less secure. Question: If Saddam Hussein had possessed nuclear weapons in March 2003, would the United States have invaded Iraq? Iran’s leaders probably think that they know the answer.
Will goes further:
“The other proposition is that Iran’s regime seeks nuclear weapons merely to enhance the nation’s security and not also for regional hegemony or the enjoyment of the enlarged status that comes from being a nuclear power. To believe that, draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.”