Drawing the Line for Diplomacy

I am interested in your opinion about diplomacy. I am not an irrational pro warfare radical that thinks threatening action must always be taken to remedy a situation. Rather I think that war should be avoided at all costs, utilized only as a last resort. I could rattle off a list of wars that I feel were entered into prematurely, but we won’t go into that here. Instead I want to talk about the war in Afghanistan and a potential war with Iran.

First on the agenda, do you believe that it is in keeping with the image and promises of President Obama to bring so many more troops into Afghanistan? I feel like he had pretenses of ending the war in Iraq and minimizing troops overseas during his campaign. Ending the war in Iraq but sending tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan is hardly in keeping with his campaign ideals. However I will not complain because I think it’s the right move, even if it is a contrarian move for Obama. Set my opinions aside, what do you think about the troop surge? Is it a pro or a con? Is Obama unnecessarily placing troops in harms way or is he ensuring domestic security?

Secondly, let’s discuss the dilemma with Iran. I feel that the situation is becoming more threatening with each passing day. Iran has made a number of threatening statements to the US and to Israel. They might be the worst possible nation to possess nuclear weapons. Are we being too passive with our “sanctions solution” approach towards Iran? How long does this have to go on before we step it up and demand some cooperation? Could such a demand make things worse?