Should We Worry About Iran?

I used to believe that worry wasn't necessary until there was actually something to worry about. I was a lot younger then, and spent most of my free time in pursuit of marijuana and biker chicks. Today, I don't get stoned, and am happily married, so the time I used to spend chasing women and searching for that perfect blend of weed has left a huge void in my life that I have filled with worry. In my middle age, I find that there are a number of things to worry about. There is retirement. On one hand, retirement should be something to be happy about, but like nirvana or the afterlife, it is something that requires constant effort in the present tense. There is cancer. It comes in many flavors and is invisible, and so I worry until that painful moment when the technician stuffs my breasts into that metal vise and turns the screws, and then whispers to me that she doesn't see anything unusual. I never stop to think about actually having cancer and not making it to retirement, and then crossing the retirement off of my worry list, because worry has it's own agenda. On the list of worries, there are the people I love. My partner, my sisters, my tiny little three month old nephew, I worry about their happiness, their health, and their financial situations, in addition to worrying about my own. And what about the environment? Big worry. World Peace? Massive worry. Hunger, poverty, disease? All major worries.

I might have to quit my day job, so that I will have more time to worry.

Back in the worry-free days of biker chicks and good weed, I never had to fret about George Bush and Dick Cheney. The air popper that shuffles the lottery balls never produced the names on the same ticket. We had Richard Nixon who resigned over an illegal burglary that was essentially a paranoid grab for power, but we had grown-ups in office and in the press who put a stop to it. There was the Bill Clinton scandal involving some icky sex with a very young intern, and our elected officials dealt with it. Looking back over the last few decades, I don't remember either issue as something that I would put on my worry list. If only George Bush and Dick Cheney were responsible for an illegal break-in or some hurried sex in the Oval Office, and not an atrocious war. Nixon's Watergate troubles seem trivial today compared with the dire consequences of our escapades in Iraq, but there is no serious talk of impeachment.

So now, what about Iran?

If you look at the map, you can ask yourself the question, how many US Navy ships are deployed to the Persian Gulf? I've read about a couple of carrier groups, one that includes a nuclear aircraft carrier, the Eisenhower. If there is no reason to put Iran on our list of national worries, why are these ships there? If you have listened closely to the news reports, you have heard accusations that the Administration has made regarding explosive devices manufactured in Iran that are killing American soldiers. But if you listen even closer, you can't find proof positive, the smoking gun does not exist. But regardless of smoking guns or positive proof, what good will come of so much firepower in such a sensitive area? What war game maneuver will be mistaken as a hostile action, plunging our nation further into a situation that will have a devastating outcome for the entire planet? Will the grown-ups in the legislative branch and the honest people of the press be able to stop it once it has begun?

Should we worry about Iran?

I don't know about you, but as long as Bush and Cheney are still in office, I'm worried.

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