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We Must Bomb Iran, Says US Republican Guru
NEW YORK - A senior foreign policy adviser to the Republican frontrunner Rudy Giuliani has urged that Iran be bombed using cruise missiles and "bunker busters" to set back Teheran's nuclear programme by at least five years.
The tough message at a time of crisis between the United States and Iraq was delivered by Norman Podhoretz, one of the founders of neoconservatism, who has also imparted his stark advice personally to a receptive President George W. Bush.
"None of the alternatives to military action - negotiations, sanctions, provoking an internal insurrection - can possibly work," said Mr Podhoretz.
"They're all ways of evading the terrible choice we have to make which is to either let them get the bomb or to bomb them."
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Podhoretz said he was certain that bombing raids could be successful.
"People I've talked to have no doubt we could set it back five or 10 years. There are those who believe we can get the underground facilities as well with these highly sophisticated bunker-busting munitions."
Although Mr Podhoretz said he did not speak for Mr Giuliani, the former New York mayor whom he briefs daily appears to have embraced at least the logic of his hard-line views.
During a visit to London last month, Mr Giuliani said Iran should be given "an absolute assurance that, if they get to the point that they are going to become a nuclear power, we will prevent them or we will set them back five or 10 years".
Mr Podhoretz said: "I was very pleased to see him say that. I was even surprised he went that far. I'm sure some of his political people were telling him to go slow ... I wouldn't advise any candidate to come out and say we have to bomb - it's not a prudent thing to say at this stage of the campaign."
But Mr Podhoretz's 77 years and his position as a pre-eminent conservative foreign policy intellectual means he can not only think the unthinkable but say the unsayable.
"My role has simply been to say what I think," he said, explaining that he takes part in weekly conference calls and is in daily email contact with the Giuliani campaign.
He is the most eminent of a clutch of uncompromisingly hawkish aides assembled by Mr Giuliani. They include Daniel Pipes, who opposes a Palestinian state and believes America should "inspire fear, not affection", and Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official who has argued that Condoleezza Rice's diplomacy is "dangerous" and signals American "weakness" to Teheran.
"Does Rudy agree with me?" Mr Podhoretz asked rhetorically. "I don't know and I don't wish to know." But he added that "Rudy's view of the war is very similar to mine."
Mr Podhoretz's thesis is that the war on terror is in fact World War Four and that the 42-year-long Cold War should be more properly described as World War Three.
Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest honour, by President George W. Bush in 2004, Mr Podhoretz later sought a rare one-on-on audience with the US commander-in-chief. They met in New York's Waldorf Astoria hotel in the spring.
The author of the recent World War IV: the Long Struggle Against Islamofacsism spent about 35 minutes outlining his case for air strikes against Iran as Mr Bush's then chief adviser Karl Rove took notes.
"Whether I had any effect on him I truly don't know but I sure tried my best to persuade him," he said.
"He was very cordial. He was warm. He listened. He occasionally asked a question as I made the case but he was truly poker faced."
Mr Podhoretz left the meeting unshaken in his belief that Mr Bush would attack Iran before he leaves office.
"The spirit of the questions was not to try to refute or contradict what I was saying. I didn't get any negative vibes."
He said that now "the debate [over Iran] is secretly over and the people who are against military action are now preparing to make the case that we can live with an Iranian bomb".
Neither Mr Bush nor Mr Giuliani, however, would countenance Teheran acquiring a nuclear weapon and either one would authorise military action once they were convinced Iran had passed the point of no return with its uranium enrichment programme.
"Unlike a ground invasion where you've got to mass hundreds of thousands of troops, it takes six months and everybody knows you're mobilising, with air strikes, we've got three carriers in the region and a lot of submarines," Mr Podhoretz said.
"I would say it would take five minutes. You'd wake up one morning and the strikes would have been ordered and carried out during the night. All the president has to do is say go."
© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2007.



139 Comments so far
Show AllOnly 10-20 million Jews in the whole world -- and a large portion of our foreign policy, costly wars at our expense, and grossly exaggerated media attention is all riveted toward their ends.
We live in surreal times indeed. Why don't they manage their own affairs, and we'll get back to ours as well?
One would almost be led to wonder whether Bush is Jewish himself.
Gee...what's new? Another Jew who wants to bomb Iran! Take a look at the names at the helm of the neocon movement.
Kristol, Wolfowitz, Pearle, Feith, Abrams, etc. What do they all have in common besides being war-mongering pricks?
Thy're all Jewish, stupid, and they are directing our foreign policy through AIPAC. It's time We the People wake up and see what's happened to our country.
So when is Norman Podhoretz going to pick up his tin hat and rifle to lead the charge? Kudos to the photographer who accurately depicts hypocrites like Pudwhoretz for who they are: armchair warmongers. God forfend if they ever have to don boots and get them muddy.
Norman Podhoretz is to War is what Gandhi was to Peace.
He's symbolic of those Neo-Cons living in a box. What I'm not sure of though, is whether he realizes that he's playing into the hands of Big Oil and the Military Industrial Complex? An invasion of Iran will boost oil profits and defence contracts to the point that it will bankrupt America. However Mr. Podhoretz actually may believe that Iran poses a threat to the U.S. Even if Iran produced a bomb similar to the one North Korea tested, it would be at least 15 years away, have no delivery system that could ever reach the U.S. and pale in comparison to the nuclear arsenals of Israel or the U.S. Not to mention that any use of even such a crude bomb against anyone would result in the country being nuked in return.
This comes down to racism and arrogance. People in the White House actually believe that they're superior in intelligence, knowledge and everything else to any of their counterparts in the rest of the world.
[quote]seriousprofessor October 27th, 2007 1:32 pm -- note for the slow-witted: Praising the policy while critiquing its method is still praising the policy.[/quote]
Heh heh. I think even I got that one, professor. Now, if you can just wake up the rest of the "class" before the next exercise in pseudo-democracy, preferably in time for the nomination process, we might stand at least a small chance of accomplishing something.
I don't really care if the revolutionary replacements still want to call themselves the "(New) Democratic Party" if it will keep Daniel David and other "loyalists" of his ilk on the side of the righteous -- just so long as they actually remain there and support the underlying cause when the chips are down. Somehow, I have serious misgivings about that.
Ah, to quote Jon Stewart, "What a perfectly handsome crazy person!"
Yeah, I like the compromise: let's drop Podheretz from 35,000 feet over Iran. But then let's do Perle, Wolfowitz, Cheney,Feith, Abrams, Rumsfeld, et al., in sum, all the signatories to the PNAC. And good riddens.
What's so sad is that the mainstream media give these fools air time.
Whether Iran has the bomb or not is irrelevant: they could never use it. Both Pakistan and India have the bomb, and they found out they could never use it.
The people who promote unprovoked wars of aggression should not be given medals. They should be tried for treason, locked up, and the key thrown away.
Russia and China have already warned against bombing Iran. I think they are the only impediment standing in the way of the neocons bloodlust. And thank goodness for them.
"At CD, the debaters below who don't like bomb, bomb, bomb will embrace a non-existent third party as their solution, and probably mention too that ANYONE but a Democrat should be in charge of the bombs."
When the Democrats overwhelmingly support the exact same policy, as was the case in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yugoslavia, they leave thinking people no choice but to go elsewhere.
(note for the slow-witted: Praising the policy while critiquing its method is still praising the policy.)
"People I've talked to have no doubt we could set it back five or 10 years."
Then what? Bomb them again? Nuke 'em just to make doubly sure?
All these neocons including Guliani suffer from bad parenting...they were twisted in their youth
and like all neocons and conservatives they live in a constant state of fear and anger.
They are to be pitied for the loathsome creatures that they have become...they are inhumane in their thinking
Time wounds all heels...
the disgusting creature knows that bombing iran will stupendously deepen the ME quagmire. he lies because he is an agent of those who work to destroy our country.
Were Norman Podhoretz and James Watson separated at birth? Or is it something that happens to a person at a certain age after being coccooned in a certain mindset? In any event, they would make great companions for each other at an asylum for the (not even politically) incorrect. Watson's remarks forced him into a timely retirement. Maybe it's time for us to think about retiring some others in a timely manner. Like Podhoretz. Or like bush. What say, Nancy?
God! Hitler would be proud of these guys. They've turned us into the Fourth Reich. Blitzkreig! Blitzkreig! Kill them in their beds before they know we're at war with them. It worked for Hitler, what the Hell!
http://www.populistamerica.com/what_happened_to_my_country
The above was written a couple of years ago, but how much more true now.
Perhaps we could compromise with Bush and let him drop Norman Podhoretz on Iran.
"I would say it would take five minutes. You'd wake up one morning and the strikes would have been ordered and carried out during the night. All the president has to do is say go."
After saying something this absurd, and in the face of the Iraq War's failures, how can anyone take this neo-conman and fool seriously? First, he scorns the Constitution, namely Congressional war powers. Second, he imagines that even a 100% successful air strike would stop Iran from getting the bomb eventually. Third, he assumes Iran will not find anyway to punish the U.S. Fourth, he doesn't care who might die.
I'd rather live with an Iranian bomb than a disgraceful "Pearl Harbor" attack by my country. There's already a Pakistani bomb and that's even scarier.
Mr. Podhoretz makes a case that actually appeals to about 50% of the voters in this country. Take 'em on the offense, an overnight deal, quit talking around in circles, DO SOMETHING. (Bombs are fast and easy.)
He has the ear of the current president and someone, (Giuliani), who very well may be the next president. At CD, the debaters below who don't like bomb, bomb, bomb will embrace a non-existent third party as their solution, and probably mention too that ANYONE but a Democrat should be in charge of the bombs. As surely as the sun comes up. And, as a result, someone other than a Democrat probably will indeed remain in charge, of bombs, and of The United States Supreme Court.
buminfl, the majority of zionists and neocons are not Jews but gentiles. George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and the legions of Christian zealots who voted for them and support the neocon/zionist movements are not Jews.
A good friend of mine, KEM PATRICK would say, "When we bomb Iran, we have shot ourselves in the face and the depression will begin shortly after, and this idiot Podhoretz says Bush was poker faced during their meeting. I believe shit faced would be a more descriptive term".
If M.A.D. works between Russia and the U.S., why not for Iran and Israel?
[quote]commander_n_chimp October 27th, 2007 2:05 pm -- buminfl, the majority of zionists and neocons are not Jews but gentiles ...[/quote]
It's best, I think, to stick to the criticizing the Zionist aims and activities that we oppose and leave aside the ethnic and religious aspects that are largely irrelevant in any case. Otherwise, we risk falling into the same trap as the "anti-Semitic" labellers whereby we render the terminology of our own debate essentially meaningless.
Why isn't this terrorist in GITMO?
Have any of you planned out what you will do if it is WWW III?
What if there are nuclear strikes and Pakistan gets involved? and Israel gets hit and retaliates with more nuclear weapons?
Funny how the right can strike fear with the thought of Iran having a nuclear weapon and yet the idea of a nuclear war is suppose to be comforting?
Gee good thing we can bomb them and start a nuclear Holocaust ...Well I can sleep tonight (NOT)
Wesley Clark, 4 star general and the former commander of NATO troops has a petition to stop the war in Iran here:
http://ga4.org/campaign/stopiranwar
"There has been a glaring, unfortunate, display of incompetent strategic leadership within our national leaders. As a Japanese proverb says, "Action without vision is a nightmare." There is no question that America is living a nightmare with no end in sight"
Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez, retired United States Army general who served as the commander of coalition forces in Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004.
What does the US have to gain if we attack Iran... A depression. Therefore, attacking Iran is stupid. The question becomes why is the US being driven to attack Iran? Who has anything to gain from this action? Which country close to Iran is threatened by Iran?
If you think about it, there is only one country threatened by Iran. Israel. Which lobby group has a huge influence on the US government? Israel. The US is going to be economically destroyed for Israel.
Don't you just love it.
Isn't there a US law against inciting violence . . . or does this apply only to US-designated "enemy combatants"? Oh, and another thing: the fact that the commander-in-chief in "the land of the free" can effectively be SUMMONED to a meeting in a Hotel by a war-pimp like Podhoretz says a lot about exactly who is in charge!
This is not in Israel's interest either. That small nation will be destroyed if nuclear weapons are used on a large scale.
Right now the Bush legacy is very poor and he will be thought of badly in history. So how to recover from his mistakes? create a Holocaust? ...crazy ..but that is imo what he is thinking. We have people who are incompetent and insane as our leaders.
I hope the military stands up to this. The military leaders can see what is going on.
The military leaders must speak up. One of the first targets would be the US military troops in Iraq.
Podoretz appears comfortable in his obviously posh quarters. Maybe that accounts for the smug look on his face. Or, is it that he realizes he could well be dead within a short time and wouldn't have to face the consequences of a strike on Iran...with or without nukes. He knows, but is too timid and shallow to say it aloud, that a "war" with Iran based more trumped-up nuclear fears is only a cover for another step in the west's mid-eastern oil grab. I have to imagine his reptile-brain is writhing these days, like so many others, with the realization that it's really all over for western capitalism and, unfortunately, the civilization that bought into that hollow way of thinking.
Podoretz and his neo-con spawn knew early on that all of us have that reptilian brain that would react to threats and seek the most available shelter. He knew it would come down to not only a fight for political survival, but a fight to the last man, woman and child for the last scraps of resources...in this case, oil. He must have envisioned something like that scene from old westerns where the wagon train boss is trying desperately to get the settlers to circle their wagons against the "savage" hordes visible on the distant hills. I wonder if he could have imagined that the part of the wagon boss, today, would be played by a cabal of amoral lunatics such as BushCo? Where is Ward Bond when we need him?
Just as in the wagon train debacle, in which the settlers, with the excpetion of a few "clear thinkers", scurried and stumbled around to find a haven in, around and under the wagons, people are reaching desperately for their own safety. Sadly, many foks seem willing to accept further war with bunker busters or nukes as their "salvation". Of course, the old movies didn't show the scenes where people drug their friends and neighbors out from under the wagons so they could save themselves. That scene hasn't been added to the movie we see playing all around us today. But, it's in the last stages of production and, unless we get very, very lucky, coming to a neighborhood near you. I think it might be time a brief intermission.
In the end, no amount of money and influence is going to shelter Podoretz when the Indians come knocking on his door. But I'm sure he'll welcome them in for tea and biscuits. He looks like such a nice man.
The Podoretzes of the world have basically outlived their uselfulness, soon to be byproducts of the evolutionary parade. They should put their lizards on a leash, go takea nice, long nap and let those with some sanity and humanity have a shot at it. That goes for those in the BusCo Circus, as well.
I admit to living with despair and sadness over what we seem to have become and where we're headed. And I don't know what to do about it, although a few rudmentary ideas come to mind. It's time to admit that the Indians aren't going away any time soon and they'll continue to resent the wagon train we represent. No amount of beads and trinkets are going to pacify them this time...and rightly so. They've been fooled before. It's time to be honest with ourselves and admit the calamity errupting around us is one of our own making, the main ingredients being greed and shortsightedness. It's the way we live: hyperconsuming and megawasting. We're comfortable under our wagons, for the time being. But rule of cause-and-effect is coming for a visit like some old and bitter relative we've refused to acknowledge, and it's not going to knock asking for tea and biscuits.
I think we must bomb Mr. Podhoretz and the evil neocons...with the force of international law, and throw all their evil asses into jail to rot for eternity
what does he care? He's 77, old and senile, and will be dead soon,(may he burn in hell forever) and wont have to live with the consequences.
the GOP should be declared an internatioal terror organization and shut down for the betterment of humanity.
Poderetze is a product of this country. doesn't sound like he has experienced war in any form so possibly one could have him embedded with the army in Iraq for some first hand experience. Belligerence increases exponentialy when seated in a safe comfie chair as does patriotism, poor GOP saddled with all the extremes of fascism and fighting another small country's battles. Demons must abound in their dreams.
The GOP and some demo's will insist on acting against the best interests of this country and many of the population cheered them on because they were going to get a tax break as well.
How would you feel if another country started debating whether to bomb, invade or nuke the US to stop "nucular" weapon manufacture.others? Is it any wonder the US is looked on as the Great Satan by many Muslims?
Let's look at this from outside the box for one moment. This could be the next reality show. "Let's Bomb ___________. You fill in the blank. The show could start off in baghdad as we already have a foothold. It would take the installment of live feeds from baghdadi homes and it would show the action when the bombs started dropping. Screems would be good but shots of anyone actually bleeding would of course have to be edited out. Or imagine the fun of seeing live video of iraqui homes getting their doors kicked down and invaded by US soldiers. We could add those old Batman and Robin sound effects and dialogue balloons for added effect. You know, bifffff, or whomp as head meets boot. The bubble caption could read, "Another terrorist bites the dust." And then cut for commercial, maybe a tooth whitener ad with Bill Murray asking sarcastically, "Have you whitened today?" The next week it could be North Korea and the profits would be huge. Help there is even less than it is in China. Then Cuba, yeah, that would insure the Florida vote in 2008. The possibilities are endless. But only if we think outside the box.
Is it possible this person has too much money invested in the munitions industry?
Bombing Iran could well be the most dangerous, and stupid, thing the United States could ever do in the Middle East. Although the bombing might destroy all or most of Iran's nuclear research facilities, there is a good chance that Iran would retaliate with missiles aimed at Israel. And there is little doubt that Iran has the capibility to do so.
Because Israel has nuclear weapons, it would probably respond by using them against Iran. I can't imagine Israel sitting idly by while it is being attacked.
Is this really what the U.S. wants to risk in the Middle East? I would like to think we have more rational and intelligent leaders than that. But after seeing what we have done for the past five years, nothing could surprise me anymore.
Does anyone know what Henry Kissinger thinks about such an attack? He literally can see the President whenever he wishes, and his advice would probably be taken very seriously.
Frank Kendrick
Podhoretz is a criminal of the worst kind. Not only should anyone not take him seriously, he should be confined to an institution for the criminally insane.
I say the government rounds up Podhoretz, all the signers of PNAC, all donors to AIPAC, as well as Joseph Lieberman and draft them and bring them to Afghanistan along the Iranian border. They will serve as a "neoconvervative-zionist" private army.
When they are brought to the Iranian border(assuming they aren't dragged kicking and screaming from their comfortable homes) in Afghanistan, they will bravely march across the border into Iran. However, if they should change their minds, turn back, mutiny or desert, they should be executed immediately by American soldiers. There is currently a 94 year old marathon runner, so why not a 77 year old soldier who is a true-believer?
I wish the whole world would freakin' CALM DOWN for one minute....Is Iran ever going to nuke Israel? No, because in "less than five minutes" Iran would be toast from multiple response-directions. Is Iran ever going to nuke Europe? No, same reason---over and over. And the so-called "reporters" we have from top to bottom work on the #1 assumption of the preposterous opposite: be afraid, we must not let them be equals (on the oily playing field); we've screwed them so many times (Shah, etc.) that Iran cannot ever be trusted, etc. No junkie wants his supply in the hands of people whom he has robbed (and worse) already....North Korea's nukes and million-man-army:---Wow. What are they going to do, invade China? Sneak up on L.A.? Why can't anybody remember what brought places like Libya to the world table---a place in the world, remember? "His-story" has FUCKED OUR MINDS on war as the answer to everything. We're waging "a diplomacy offensive".....I live in the STUPIDEST country on the planet!
You can bet your last dollar that Iran's nuclear research facilities are far underground, far away from the known entrances, so I don't think any kind of non-nuclear bomb or even a nuclear bomb will "reach" the Iranian nuclear program.
A nuclear weapon used on Iran would kill millions in the middle East, including untold numbers in next door Israel. Given the prevailing winds, the radioactive fallout could spread more than a thousand miles southeast, killing people in Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, and other surrounding countries. The URL below shows the likely result of using a 1 megaton nuclear bunker buster on Iran:
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_security/nuclear_weapons/nuclear-bunker-buster-rnep-animation.html
And there's this:
The latest information I have had from the followers of Bush is that he has demanded and received permission to use nuclear "bunker busters" in Iran in a preemptive strike. As a nuclear veteran (Operation Redwing, Bikini, 1956) I can affirm that this is absolute madness. The "bunker buster" is a cute sounding name for a nuclear horror. Air bursts are horrible enough, doing incredible destruction through heat, shock and high initial radiation. The fallout from an air burst is registered around the world. A surface or subsurface burst is even deadlier and more long lasting.
The Castle-Bravo blast at Bikini in 1954 was a fifteen megaton surface blast. It blew a hole over a mile wide and four hundred feet deep in the atoll, completely obliterating the island and vaporizing over thirteen billion cubic feet of coral, rock and water, sending it in a radioactive cloud extending into the stratosphere. The fallout over the atolls downwind was devastating to the people and ecology there. All of that material is rendered extremely radioactive and as it cools it condenses to fall as rain or radioactive "snow" which contaminates everything it touches. The effects are felt worldwide.
Firing der Bush's bunker busters in Iran, or anywhere else for that matter, will vaporize hundreds of thousands of tons of earth, water and rock and send this radioactive soup downwind to kill and sicken whole populations. Those immediately downwind will die quickly, in hours or days. Those further downwind will take longer. The global incidences of cancers and disease will again rise markedly. The land downwind will remain contaminated and unusable for generations. If there were deep shelters, it has been postulated by the designers that the bunker busters would not penetrate deeply enough to affect them. I imagine that would initiate the attack theory of sending one nuke after another into the same hole. Picture the intensity of the radioactive disaster that would perpetrate on the area.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=OSB20060314&articleId=2093
This is a pr problem for the Pentagon and White House and assorted other wanna-bombers.
First they tried the nuclear threat from Iran stuff. But the IAEA kept saying there was no threat, no evidence of a threat.
So they switched to blaming Iran for supplying weapons to people who are killing American military people. Pent and White House say they will attack Iran for supplying the insurgents.
So if they attack to stop the weapons supplies, but hit the nuclear facilities, (which pretty well everyone figures have nothing to do with nuclear weapons), how does that stop the weapons supplies?
The bomb Iran bunch are a complex group.
So it's a tough pr job for the white House and Pentagon.
Maybe they should all just go back to the original anti Islam Crusade that they started with...maybe second time round that will resonate...
In 2005 Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa saying the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons was forbidden under Islam. The fatwa was cited in an official statement by the Iranian government at an August meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.
Now somehow this little piece of information manages to keep from being reported in the west.
Whether Iran is seeking a nuclear weapon or not is something that no one can say with any certainty. What is almost certain is the effect bombing Iran will have. It wold most surely have the same response as when Israel illegally bombed the Osirak reactor in Iraq. In that case, it jump started a nuclear weapons program that Iraq didn't have but suddenly realised it needed.
Were we to adapt the neocon philosophy, we would all have to go out assassinating all neocons before they were allowed to get us in any more messes. (Disclaimer: Only a neocon would be stupid enough to think those words constitute a threat and not an insult.)
The Old Horseshit Testament.
lol
Beating and Killing Slaves: Although an owner could beat a male or female slave, she/he would have to avoid serious injury to eyes or teeth. The owner would have to avoid beating the slave to death. But it was acceptable to beat a slave so that he/she was mortally injured and died a day or so later: Exodus 21:20-21 "And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money [property]."
*"Emancipation of Slaves: Slaves in ancient Israel were automatically emancipated after 6 years of slavery, but only if they were Jewish."
"...Foreign slaves were out of luck."(see Exodus 21:1-4, Deuteronomy 15:12-18, *Leviticus 25:44-46: "Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. You can will them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly."
(NIV)*"Neither Jesus nor St. Paul, nor any other Biblical figure is recorded as saying anything in opposition to the institution of slavery. Slavery was very much a part of life in Palestine and in the rest of the Roman Empire during New Testament times.
What I don't understand is why in hell we put up with "neocons?"I think we should start kicking their asses, conficating their bank accounts, closing their businesses, and then ship them over to Iran and let the Iranians have their way with them.
Why won't Bill Maher, John Stewart, Randi Rhodes, or any liberal on the MSM mention Zionists, Likudniks or AIPAC? I don't remember anybody, not even Amy Goodman refer to "They who must not be named". How can we pretend pro-Israel reactionaries don't share half the blame for the Iraqi Holocaust or ignore that these are the people pushing for nuking Iran and WWIII?
The neoconservatives are largely Jewish, and the reason is to be found in Jeremi Suri's "Henry Kissinger and the American Century": since German Jewish immigrants were the most reliably anti-Nazi soldiers & officials, the never-well-investigated Jewish right-wing developed the template by which all international conflict was to be understood as new Hitlers readying the further persecution of Jews.
Libby, Ledeen, Feith, the Podhoretzes and Kristols, David Frum, the Pipes brothers, I.M. Peretz, all the leading lights & funders of neoconservatism were all in flight from the old Jewish left, wanting to prove, like the old Hollywood moguls, that Jewishness=American imperialism -- whether anti-communist or, now, anti-"islamofascist", and along with Abe Foxman & Sumner Redstone, they casitgate as "defeatist" or "anti-semitic" those Jews who come out of the 19th century social progressive mold.
Anti-semitism, the real variety, takes root when we conceal those who use Jewish identity as a means of manipulation, extortion & intimidation, largely against other Jews but also against Gentiles who are themselves trying to "perfect" Jews.
It's like pretending that most Mafiosi weren't really Italian or Sicilian.
What's a conservative intellectual? A neocon who once read a book?
Clearly, we need a new distraction.
Otherwise certain people might be prosecuted for certain actions. Friends protect friends.
Within the inner sanctums these guys are thinking long-term, projecting 5, 10, 20 even 50 years out. It's called strategic scenario contingency planning. And, having computers helps alot.
You think the elites don't know that humpty dumpty is beginning to slip - bigtime? ...or think that the earth's ecology isn't going to tank? Medical, economic, massive PTSD, rampant lawlessness = Karmuppance coming at us like a bat out of hell.
A world in chaos will naturally call for much deeper and wide-ranging, draconian measures..."for our own good."
A "benevolent" world dictatorship gonna begin to look mighty good to bunches of folks. Say what you will, Bushco. has made a very good start on this longer-term agenda.
"Now is the time for all good men (people) to come to the aid of their country (and world)."
So talk about this stuff with someone you normally wouldn't; and encourage them to do the same. Or read Elgin's Promise Ahead. Or go within and listen for the "still small voice within," the place where each of us knows what the next unique "right action" would be.
Now is the time to extend ourselves just a bit ourside our comfort zones - for the love of humanity, animals, plants...the Earth - deep down I believe we really do know the drill.
For some reason I am picturing a scene from Terminator (1, 2?) where Ahnold shows up to protect the woman and boy, and says, in an urgent Ahhnold-like voice: "Come with me if you want to live!!"
Testify and sing it loud:
The time for "right effort" is now.
I know we each can do something today, and then again tomorrow.
I don't think they'll use nukes on Iran. If nothing else, they don't want to irradiate Israel. Plus, they have super powerful conventional bombs that can penetrate into installations deep underground. Still, it would be insanity for the US to attack Iran. There is no basis for it in int'l law or morality, whether or not Iran is going to get a nuclear weapon. The end result of all this US bellicosity and war mongering will only be the more rapid decline of its empire, its isolation by the world community, and economic collapse. That is the path the neo-Cons have set us on, with generous enabling from the lily-livered, spineless Democrats.
Perhaps someone would be so kind as to bomb little Normie and his friends and their families. Then let's see if those that survive stop talking insanity. They probably won't. And neither will the Iranians stop doing whatever they need to do to feel secure in a world dominated by sociopaths like Bush and little Normie.
Why is it no surprise that this man is sitting in an armchair? (No doubt he will later "toddle safely home and die - in bed." Googling that quote: priceless.)
A neocon intellectual? What might that be? If these people were not so dangerous, they'd be a joke!
You people don't understand, we have to fight them over there before they attack us over here. Oh wait, they're already setting CA on fire! See? Bush was right, oceans no longer protect us.
Today's America is the perfect breeding ground for a bacteria like Norman Podhoretz. 95% of the serial killers live here, America consumes 80% of the illegal drugs and their waste line gets bigger by the hour. Their favorite song is John McCain's Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran. Worse, most Americans believe there's a dime's worth of a difference between Republicans and Democrats. The Empire is collapsing.
voting for Nader will solve this problem.
When's Judeo-Fascism Awareness Day?