Ian Welsh:

George Lakoff says what I've been saying for a long time - the Bush administration is considering a first strike nuclear attack on Iran. Read the article, there is no question that this is the case. This is why I was so aghast at all the Democrats who kept saying "all options are on the table", because at this time and at this place, that now means "nukes are on the table."

If the US uses nuclear weapons on a nation which has not attacked them first, let alone attacked them first with nukes, it can bend over and kiss its ass goodbye.It will become an international pariah nation and Americans will not be safe travelling under a US passport in the vast majority of the world - probably not even in Europe. You have been warned - deal with the madman in the White House, because if he does something insane like using nukes, you will be isolated and contained and you will not enjoy the consequences of that isolation one little bit. It is also quite likely that if you nuke another nation one day, in a container ship, a little present will arrive to remind you that the rest of the world is not helpless to retaliate against those who do the unthinkable.

As for all of you Democrats who won't do anything - if nukes are used, you will be held responsible. Not only did you make no serious attempt to stop the attack, you enabled it. As a result the rest of the world, while acknowledging that some Americans probably aren't insane (many North Koreans are innocent victims, every once in a while we ship them grain), will be entirely justified in treating the US as effectively power mad and sociopathic at the political level, and beyond reasoning with.

I don’t think I have much to say in response to this. These people are insane; they are going to get millions of us killed.