It’s difficult, it seems, for some folks to understand why others aren’t feeling the rising excitement about our next encounters in the Middle East. How can it be (they muse in befuddled bewilderment) that anyone would not be ready to head off the threat emanating from Iran?
Perhaps these reluctant wall-flowers simply need more verbal foreplay:
This summer’s crisis in Lebanon has made it clearer than ever that the world now faces a grave threat from the radical regime in Iran. The Iranian regime arms, funds, and advises Hezbollah, which has killed more Americans than any terrorist network except al Qaeda. The Iranian regime interferes in Iraq by sponsoring terrorists and insurgents, empowering unlawful militias, and supplying components for improvised explosive devices. The Iranian regime denies basic human rights to millions of its people. And the Iranian regime is pursuing nuclear weapons in open defiance of its international obligations.
But we’ve heard these sweet words before, in our last encounter:
The Iraqi regime has violated all of those obligations. It possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons. It has given shelter and support to terrorism, and practices terror against its own people. The entire world has witnessed Iraq’s eleven-year history of defiance, deception and bad faith.
It was very titillating the first time around — too much so, as it turned out.
In retrospect, I’d like to take things a bit slower this time if you don’t mind. It’s not that I’m coy, necessarily — please don’t misunderstand. I’m only human, after all, and those hot words are having an effect.
But I’m just not ready.
If you’d gone slower last time — if you hadn’t rushed your fence (so to speak), I might be more trustful now… but you didn’t and I’m not.
I understand that you’d like to make up for the last time — that you’re feeling ever-so-slightly embarrassed about your… er… performance. These things happen; too much passion after a long dry-spell can be overwhelming, but if you want to avoid a similar situation, you’re going to have to do better with this early stage.
Don’t just put your lips close to my ear again and whisper vague nothings in the dark. I want to turn the lights on this time.