Listen up. Can you hear the drums beating for a third war?
The neocons are in a bubbling rage over Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Columbia University. The pro-surge propagandists at Freedom Watch labeled the Iranian leader a “terrorist” in–of all places–a New York Times ad. Neocon godfather, Giuliani advisor and “World War IV” author Norman Podharetz went to the White House recently to urge President Bush to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities.
And now Senators Jon Kyl and Joe Lieberman, who’s already advocated attacking the country, are introducing a sense of the Senate resolution, possibly up for a vote today, that accuses Iran of fighting “a proxy war against the Iraqi state and coalition forces in Iraq.” The resolution states that “it is a vital national interest of the United States” to prevent Iran from turning Iraq’s Shiite militias into a “Hezbollah-like force” and says that US policy should “combat, contain and roll back the violent activities and destabilizing influence inside Iraq of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, its foreign facilitators such as Lebanese Hezbollah, and its indigenous Iraqi proxies.” To accomplish this task, Kyl and Lieberman advocate “the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq.” Finally, the resolution dubs Iran’s largest military branch, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, “a foreign terrorist organization.”
It’s clear where this resolution is going. The Council for a Livable World, one of the more astute peace groups in Washington, says it “could wind up being another in a long line of blank checks provided to the Executive Branch in the mold of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the authorization to use force in Iraq.” The line advocating the “prudent and calibrated” use of US power is “a loophole is big enough to drive an aircraft carrier or a fleet of planes through.”
Moreover, the case for the next war is as shaky as the last one. “The Kyl-Lieberman amendment is a resolution based almost entirely on false premises,” the Council states. “The resolution only quotes questionable and unsubstantiated assertions provided by the US military about Iranian involvement in Iraq.”
The Council warns that actions like these from the US Senate, while still only symbolic, could lead to serious blowback of the worst kind. “Provocative measures such as the Kyl-Lieberman amendment can lead to a tit-for-tat escalation resulting in military confrontation between the US and Iran. There are no good military options for solving our disagreements with Iran. Military action would only result in disastrous and unintended consequences for U.S. and Israeli interests. If we have learned nothing else from Iraq, it is that there are limitations to the use of military force.”
The only thing that neocons have learned from Iraq is that Joe Lieberman should be secretary of state.
Ari Berman, based in Washington, DC, is a contributing writer for The Nation, a contributor to The Notion and a Puffin Foundation writing fellow at The Nation Institute.
© 2007 The Nation
Who are the NeoCons, how much power do they weild and who do they represent?
Would saying it be anti-semitic?
neocons are those who sit atop the heap of american culture. For years and years they have got their way by ridiculing their young and pigeon holing them and anyone who disagrees with them into lives of quiet desperation whenever and where ever they can. Using free markets, and jobs as slavery and educational institutions as means of indoctrination whenever they could.
when they, their minions, and their progeny have arrived at the safety and sanctity of that exalted position, whether they got there by israel or corporate interests, they survey all that they have and realize that to lose it would be to face the intolerable idea that they have lived lives of - if not - complete and utter delusion. aka meaninglessness.
folks have jumped from the tops of skyscrapers for less.
In the real world, there would be a resolution to try the very dangerous Israeli agent Lieberman for treason. He makes Jonathan Pollard look like an American patriot.
Iran will be the second oil-rich Asian nation to be attacked by the Bush Regime. Attacks on all other Asian nations with oil reserves will follow now that the Bagdad “embassy” and US air bases in Iraq are operational.
Why are specifically Jewish (oh my gawd, am I allowed to state the obvious?)pushing for this while we are being told it is just about the oil?
A convergence of interests perhaps, but is the Israel aspect downplayed because of increasing awareness of the disproportionate influence of extremely Zionist directives influencing US foreign policy?
What a scam–war crimes are pursued by keeping aspects of the discussion promoting them, taboo.
Clinton just voted for the Lieberman resolution.
Clinton just voted for the Lieberman resolution.
Whee! Dems gotta look tough on “security issues”, after all. Not that that’s gonna get them back in the White House, but…
And we also find out Sen. Clinton is getting advice on Iraq from Bush. That’s like having Michael Vick advise you on raising dogs.
‘and it’s one, two, three, what are we fighting for? Don’t ask I don’t give a damn, let’s go and bomb Iran…’
US Senate sing-along.
Sigh.
Time to get my gardening tools out. Have fun in a world without oil…
Some of my comments + quoted articles on the state of American women in the US on CD are removed. I am surprised by this NEW DEVELOPEMNT. I do not know whether this is part of “THE US FREEDOM OF SPEECH”?????
I am posting another article on the state of American women in the US:
“It’s society is called a “rape culture” with data showing:
– one-fourth of its adult women victims of forcible rape sometime in their lives, often by someone they know, including family members;
– one-third of them are victims of sexual abuse by a husband or boyfriend;
– 30% of people in the country say they know a woman who’s been physically abused by her husband or boyfriend in the past year;
– one in four of its women report being sexually molested in childhood, usually repeatedly over extended periods by a family member or other close relative;
– its women overall experience extreme levels of violence; an astonishing 75% of them are victims of some form of it in their lifetimes;
–domestic violence is their leading cause of injury and second leading cause of death;
– statistically, homes are their most dangerous place if men are in them as millions experience battering by husbands, male partners or fathers;
– for most women with children, there’s no escape for lack of means and because male assailants pursue them causing greater harm;
– adding further injury, its society is often unsupportive; it affords women second class status, privileges and redress when they’re abused so many suffer in silence fearing coming forward may cause more harm than help;
– its children are abused as well; millions suffer serious neglect, physical mistreatment and/or sexual abuse; many get relief only through escape to dangerous streets; they end up alone, more vulnerable and at greater danger away than at home where there, too, families act more like strangers or predators forcing young kids to flee in the first place.
What country is it where things like these are normal and commonplace; where peace, tranquility and safety are illusions; where they’re crowded out by foreign wars and violence at home in communities, neighborhoods, schools, throughout the media and in core families.
What kind of country glorifies mass killing, assaults and abuse; one that looks down on pacifist non-violence as sissy or unpatriotic, yet claims to be peace loving. It’s not in the third world, under dictatorship or controlled by religious extremists. It’s the “land of the free and home of the brave, America the Beautiful” where human rights, civil liberties, common dignity and personal safety are more illusion than fact.”
www.countercurrents.org, 26.9.2007.
-Also read:
What Freedom? What Democracy?
By Siv O’Neall
26 August, 2007
Axis Of Logic
-
Equal Work, Unequal Pay
by Lilly Ledbetter
July 31, 2007
The Christian Science Monitor
BREAKING NEWS
Dave Lindorff reports that the Senate has passed the Kyl amendment, (modified), by a vote of 76-22:
http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/?q=node/34
One reviewer noted: “How much power do the neocons have?”
My answere: plenty. Every time they say jump the Democrats ask, “How High?”
Naughty Democrats who voted for this:
Akaka (HI)
Baucus (MT)
Bayh (IN)
Cardin (MD)
Carper (DE)
Casey (PA)
Clinton (NY)
Conrad (ND)
Dorgan (ND)
Durbin (IL)
Feinstein (CA)
Harkin (IA)
Johnson (SD)
Kohl (WI)
Landrieu (LA)
Lautenberg (NJ)
Levin (MI)
Menendez (NJ)
Mikulski (MD)
Murray (WA)
Nelson (FL)
Nelson (NE)
Pryor (AR)
Reed (RI)
Reid (NV)
Rockefeller (WV)
Salazar (CO)
Schumer (NY)
Stabenow (MI)
Whitehouse (RI)
_____
Republicans who voted NAY:
Hagel (NE)
Luger (IN)
____
Not Voting:
Obama (D - IL)
McCain (R - AZ)
____
So now we all know who to thank and who to spank (well, not really spank, as I suspect some of these might enjoy that).
Please don’t forget to thank the two gutsy Republicans who crossed their party and will pay for it!
Windhorse
Which Democrats pause long enough to ask?
Yup. The coming bombing of Iran is a done deal. Hope the good people of California are ready to glow in the dark from the radioactive fallout that will be blowing their way from the pulverised nuclear reactors (and or the use of nuclear weapons by the US). Thanks Diane. Heck of a job, Fienie!
And I hope Bush will be ready to answer to the American public when the oil is shut off, bringing the ‘American way of life’ to a screaming halt.
Take a look at the latest betrayal by Diane Feinstein, this time letting the nomination of one of the Rethuglican vote-fixers go through — with a promise that he’ll be seated on the FEDERAL ELECTIONS COMMISSION:
“It looks for all the world like former Justice Department evildoer Hans Von Spakovsky will slip through and land his share of Wingnut Welfare: a paycheck from the Federal Election Commission.
Von Spakovsky’s nomination has been red-flagged for months, since revelations regarding his role in voter suppression schemes, approval of racially discriminatory redistricting schemes, and other transgressions came to light. Von Spakovsky’s reward for permanently perverting the electoral system on behalf of the Bush “administration?” A cushy seat with the nation’s elections watchdogs. Brilliantly played!”
http://www.dailykos.com/
GANDHI: I noticed some of my postings disappear and later reappear. There is some review process on CD. Thank you for posting the statistics on violence against women. The only thing missing is that rates are higher among military families. I would respectfully request that you post this material on the “PORN KING” article (yesterday), since too many of my generally enlightened male peers in this forum absolutely do NOT get it, that is, the link between porn-violence against women-and violence at large in a society. Robert JENSEN just did a new book on pornography and as a very astute writer, has probably done a great job explaining the links and WHY it matters to BOTH genders.
I had 2 attempted rapes and one boyfriend who I needed to get a restraining order against. Then there was the husband who failed to make child support payments which made life difficult when my children were young. In many places I will not go out at night alone or drive alone. I don’t think men really understand that women must guard themselves, that the sense of being protected is fragile. Violence is an EPIDEMIC in America, the land of the fearful, not free.
I’m going to miss KALX 90.7 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. and my dog.
Lieberman etc all are salivating at the idea of WWIII my God what is up with the lunatics in our gov’t???? I feel like I am living the film V for Vendetta. God we need a V right now.
Dcbeltway: The message of ‘V for Vendetta’ was that we are ALL V.
They’re only following the logic of capitalism.
BTW, why no notice of President Daniel Ortega’s magnificent jeremiad at the UN yesterday? I caught it around 2:30 a.m. on C-SPAn . . .
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070926/defense_sector_snap.html?.v=6
“Defense stocks on Wednesday hit new highs as Defense Secretary Robert Gates requested an extra $42 billion in funding from Congress to cover military costs in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008.”
And not at all because they’ve been clued in that Bush-Hillary will keep the cash spigots open for new wars . . .
Mearsheimer and Walt quote Tom Dine, executive director of AIPAC,
boasting after Sen. Percy’s defeat: “All the Jews in America, from coast to
coast, gathered to oust Percy. And the American politicians - those who
hold public positions now, and those who aspire - got the message.”
Why the neocons only? Its almost the entire Congress.
US Congress = the other Israeli occupied territory
The nefarious agenda of Joe Lieberman and the like-minded as promoters of Israel’s war policy is amply clear, but what is surprising is how the U.S. Congress fell for it.
It’s only fair that if people do ridiculous and stupid things, we should call them what they are: STUPID.
Iran is a member of the UN. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard is the armed forces of Iran and operates under Iranian constitution. To call a country’s armed forces a terrorist organization, one really has to be stupid because it is against international law and the U.N. Charter.
What is terrorism is to unleash “shocking and awful” bombing on a country which posed no danger to us, firing and killing unarmed civilians, kidnapping and holding people without due process, torturing, etc, etc, which is actually what the U.S. military has been doing. Don’t you think it would be sane for the lunatics in the Congress to pass a resolution calling it a terrorist organization? How dumb some people can get, and they’re supposed to be the cream of the crop.
Galen time to put on the masks then and hit the street onward to Congress!!!!!!
Galen time to put on the masks then and hit the street onward to Congress!!!!!!
People should not be afraid of thier goverment goverments should be afraid of the people!