I apologize for posting something that isn’t completely germane for this blog, but this New Yorker article on the White House’s plans for Iran is truly frightening (especially to people in the Middle East). One of my game theory students tipped me off to it because some of the analysis is “strategic,” but I told him that I didn’t think the following had accurately captured the utility functions of the “Islamo-fascists”:
One former defense official, who still deals with sensitive issues for the Bush Administration, told me that the military planning was premised on a belief that “a sustained bombing campaign in Iran will humiliate the religious leadership and lead the public to rise up and overthrow the government.”
It’s also pretty crazy about 25% through the article, when they discuss the White House’s annoyance that the Joint Chiefs are very reluctant about using a first-strike with nuclear weapons. I can’t understand why these crazy Muslims are so suspicious of Bush!
