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.
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139 Comments so far
Show AllWhat a foolish old man!
"Jewish people everyhere… have lived daily in the remembrance of that event when 6 million Jews died in the death camps of Germany. But so did millions
of other people: Gypsies, Poles, Hungarians, Romanians and Russians died in the same way, in the same places. We do not hear these laments from the Russians or the Poles or the Gypsies, from the people of Romania, or any of the Eastern European countries." Benjamin Creme
Apparently the holocaust is used to feed some Jewish people's self-pity, and to justify their illegal occupation of Palestine.
Max
*****
"What would have happened if millions of American and British people, struggling with coupons and lines at the gas stations, had learned that in 1942 Standard Oil of New Jersey [part of the Rockefeller empire] managers shipped the enemy's fuel through neutral Switzerland and that the enemy was shipping Allied fuel? Suppose the public had discovered that the Chase Bank in Nazi-occupied Paris after Pearl Harbor was doing millions of dollars' worth of business with the enemy with the full knowledge of the head office in Manhattan [the Rockefeller family among others?] Or that Ford trucks were being built for the German occupation troops in France with authorization from Dearborn, Michigan? Or that Colonel Sosthenes Behn, the head of the international American telephone conglomerate ITT, flew from New York to Madrid to Berne during the war to help improve Hitler's communications systems and improve the robot bombs that devastated London? Or that ITT built the FockeWulfs that dropped bombs on British and American troops? Or that crucial balI bearings were shipped to Nazi-associated customers in Latin America with the collusion of the vice-chairman of the U.S. War Production Board in partnership with Goering's cousin in Philadelphia when American forces were desperately short of them? Or that such arrangements were known about in Washington and either sanctioned or deliberately ignored?."
Charles Higham, researcher, about U.S.-Nazi collaboration during WWII
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com
These are the crazies who have been working to renew the Cold War since it ended!!! Actually, they didn't like the peace moves that Ike or JFK made either -- !!!
There are also sons of these crazies running around with this same message of violence --
RE: SatinJeff October 30th, 2007 3:46 am
"Are these people TRULY THAT stupid????"
No, SatinJeff, they are Zionists & evangelistic neo-CONs, and that's even worse because they are counting on something like the Rupture...er, um, Rapture...and another life in the sky or somewhere. Ignorant dogmatized brainwashed fools yes, stupid, hardly. Look who has your/our balls in their hands. Frankly that gives me a rather uncomfortable feeling...you?
After Mongols invaded Iran, historians estimate that the population was reduced to 10% of its original size. If American public allows its government to attack Iran, I assure all that the war would last FOREVER.
When Iraq-Saddam invaded, Iran had no army, it was crushed months ago during revolution. All of Europe & US, plus Soviets, gave Saddam arms, sattelite pictures and chemical technology. After 2 years, a volunteer army pushed Iraq army out, then within 10s of miles from Baghdad, US attacked Iran navy and hit a civilian Airline to give signal of things to come. IR signed the peace treaty then.
Iranians, a super-nationalist but non-racist folk, will fight till the last child. There is actually nothing Shiite about it, it is all about this mumbo-jumbo Persian thing, that EVERYBODY has taken to heart. You've got to be one to know 3000 years ago feels like last month.
There is no respect left for US around the world after what it did to Iraq: 1m dead, 4m displaced, folks, this is 20% of the population of a country! This is genocide. And all of you are responsible for it. We all know you kill people to live.
It is only the utter complicity of this lazy, overweight, culturally stupid and criminally violent US public that has made this US foreign policy possible. Stop all the anti-Semite bullshit! Jews had not even immigrated enmasse to US when your then President let you all know many decades ago that Military-Industrial complex has taken your government after WW2! There was not even an ISrael with nukes when Eisenhover said what he said!
One of the most vibrant segments of iranian society was always the Iranian jewish folk: been there for over 2500 years! How come US keeps gathering all the scum from all the peoples of the world and puts them at the top of its decision-making apex? It is because of its anti-intellectual Public and pseudo-intellectuals that can't approach the PUBLIC, not some jewish conspiracy you lefty-Nazis! Get your shit together and do something: Go door by door and explain how consumerism has led to a ruling elite that steals first, then thinks how to spend it! Stop buying big cars, Inter-marry racially, read history and look a geographical maps. Try travel!; stop eating Pizza, try to cook some real food for a change, sure you'll throw it away, but then go to a Persian Restaurant to see what some in the rest of the world is experiencing.
Develop a culture, start cooking, talking (in person), reading poetry, ...throw your video games away!
Don't these people like this POS realize that once they DO bomb Iran, that they are going to irradiate the OIL???
You can't run irradiated Gasoline or Diesel in your vehicle, UNLESS you LIKE driving around while your hair falls out and blows away in the wind coming in through the car windows!
The fallout will MOST LIKELY piss OFF any nation downwind of the affected areas, and they of course are going to retaliate...
This would include a few nations which ALREADY have the BOMB, and they aren't going to sit idly by and watch their citizens die of radiation poisoning...
AND, of COURSE this radioactivity is going to come around the earth and Land HERE!!!
(Even if no one DOES send a barrage of Nuclear Devices our way in a final free-for-all...)
Are these people TRULY THAT stupid????
This guy must be of the Ribbentrop school of foreign policy - bomb till we obtain enough "Lebensraum" for military bases and client regimes. If he believes in this so much he should just strap himself to a bomb, shove an American flag up his a** and jump into Iran himself. Send his kids to Iraq or Afghanistan.
No doubt if Podhoretz got what he wanted, Iran would have every right to respond, and they would be proven right in attempting to obtain a nuclear device for self-defense. Face it, Ahmedinejad is right! Iran needs to defend itself!
Down with war, fascism, and zionism! Che vive!
*I'm listening to an old Black Sabbath song "War Pigs." Very good.
Judy Woodruff was interviewing him on PBS. Why don't we ever hear from Noam Chomsky on the news hour??
Why don't these hawks consider alternatives before they conclude "there are no alternatives."?
Because it's all about them and their little... well, you know.
Future historians will long ponder how this small group managed to take control of the foreign policy of the most powerful nation on earth- the U.S. Not generally mentioned here in the U.S. is the high esteem in which they are held in Israel by them playing a leading role in all the policies of our Mideast foreign policies going back to the time the elder George Bush launched the first intervention there. This small group (and its Think Tanks and news media affiliates) have given Israel some of its greatest victories without the loss of a single life of their citizens. Never have so few done so much harm to so many steve, USN, WW2
Jackass neocons won't stop their resource-grabbing agenda until they get THEIR bunkers busted. Don't you love the way Zionist zealots use the holocaust to justify everything they do....especially their own genocidal baby-killing antics. Impeach Bush. Torture Cheney and Rumsfeld. Look out Chicago school economists! Che lives and your days are numbered.
"None of the alternatives to military action - negotiations, sanctions, provoking an internal insurrection - can possibly work," nor will military action.
"He was very cordial. He was very warm.... as I explained to him the necessity of preventative bombing" Good god! These lunatics don't even know they're sick!
Why don't we pressure Israel to dispose of its 200 or so nukes and sign the damned NPT already? Then maybe Iran wouldn't feel so desperate to develop a counter-measure. Why don't these hawks consider alternatives before they conclude "there are no alternatives."?
Grampa fascist asshole of neo-nazi Americans for the armchair war criminals for big money gang.
Follow the money,just like any other organized crime operation with a lot of lawyers and public relations.
These type are one of the things very wrong in the world,like a persistent disease that hasn't found a cure,yet !
Who wouldn't want the bomb to protect themselves from these super assholes violent aggressions ?
I think Canada better get some nukes before they try to bring democracy and freedom here
, but then we're already liberated by this propaganda (MSM).
Do you all really think Iran is so lame that they can't level the Green Zone and sink a carrier or two during their retaliation?
Send Norman Podhoretz all the Bush clan and Bush supporters to find the WMD's. Maybe they can do the job while there. What? Bush did not show up when he was in the military! Chicken George? Send the VP. Or is he chicken also?
These zionist neocon bastards want a war with Iran so bad, I say "no problem". Round all these pricks up give them rifles and drop them over Tehran. "What no parachutes" they whine.
Nope, sorry no funding. But one of your own addressed that issue. What did Rumsfeld say again? "Sometimes you don't go
to war with what you want but with what you have".. So fella's
, since you are such fearless warriors, with other peoples lives anyway, maybe you can "splat" on some high value targets when you hit. Bon Voyage'...
Fred from Boston...
Imagine if someone were to suggest that Israel be blown off the face of the earth and the US complied? Our Helen Thomas asked the question of nuclear armed countries in the ME that the US turns a blind eye too--and the latest Whitehouse bimbo mouthpiece essentially blew her off. If I was in the crosshairs of a NeoCon dominated foreign policy aggression, better believe I would want to take the mutually assured destruction route too--if only to keep Israel and it's US proxy, using armies of the goyum poor to fight their battles.
The nuclear NeoCons should be imprisoned for crimes against humanity.
Daniel David
I think you are just afraid...
If you didn't know they were so stupid you'd almost think the people who work for outfits like the CIA had a sharp sense of humor. Who else would wonder what a living defecation like Henry Kissinger would think about anything? Well.....maybe his biographer, or a revisionist historian. But then, having those agents converse with each other on progressive websites like they are each other's newfound inspiration, even though they are probably sitting in cubicles right next to each other, exposes them to the world even though they are blithely unaware when they give themselves away.
It's not possible for any moral person to become just like them. If they are not gotten rid of soon then that just puts the onus on a future generation and could possibly make the job that much more difficult. Right now they are at a low in popularity because almost everyone has seen some evidence of their evil deeds. Plus, there are other powerful forces at work in the world which are fiercely opposed to their continued reign so it is entirely likely that they will meet their end sooner than most people would expect.
What is all this crap about bombing Iran and the possibility they might use nuclear weapons against us? Aren't we already bombing them, the rest of the Middle East (including Isreal BTW), Europe, the US, and the rest of the world, for that matter, with the nuclear weapon of mass destruction known as DU (depleted uranium)? Radioactive particles from the DU, we are at this moment shooting in Iraq & Afghanistan, can circle the globe in as little as nine days, so we are all vulnerable.
I noticed one person posting on this thread queried he wondered what Henry Kissinger thought (Frank Kendrick October 27th, 2007 4:08 pm). Who in their right mind gives a tinker's damn what that internationally recognized war criminal thinks, except to possbly head him and his cohorts off from carrying out their aim of de-populating the world (but especially the middle east so they can control the oil there) by 2 billon people? He has specifically stated de-population of the world (and especially the middle east) should be the number one priority of US foreign policy. (Google Kissinger & de-population for info). What better way to achieve the PNAC/neo-CON/Zionist goal than perpetual wars, use of depleted uranium weaponry, ignoring genocides, and obfuscating scientific information about the disasterous effects of climate change?Compared to Kissenger this guy Podhoretz is a small fry, albeit a very dangerous one who shouldn't be ignored.
The real tough nut to crack is not so much who these arch enemies of a peaceful civilized world are, but how do we take these powerful people down? Just as the Nazi threat was destroyed (mostly, but not entirely since the ideology survived in the neo-CONS) THESE PEOPLE AREN'T JUST GOING TO GIVE UP AND GO AWAY ON THEIR OWN. They must be forced out, stamped out, and never allowed to raise their perverted heads again.
The quandary is if we start 'taking out' these enemies of civilization we fall into the same ethical trap of regarding 'the ends justify the means' as a valid philosophy, and become just like these dispicable people we can't abide ourselves. It's sad that the people who recognize the threat are the same ones who understand real morality, and what it means to have a conscience.
zhongman
Thanks for the response. I didn't realize you were talking about the Cold War.
I'm extremely troubled that the Bush administration likes to attack various countries because they've decided these countries have something the US wants, like oil in Iraq, or the country might be doing something the US doesn't want them to do, like Iran. I think this is an extremely dangerous position for the US to take.
North Korea backed off its nuclear weapons program because nearby China, which has had nuclear weapons for several years and despite their seeming cooperation with the US in limiting North Korea's nuclear capabilities, is covering NK's back, would protect them in case of an attack. Iran has no such ally who is a close neighbor, though they could probably count on Russia or China to come to their aid if attacked.
"Neo-Cons"
Maybe someone had already used "Neo-Nazis"
The next war may seem to be the Republicans best hope for maintining what they feel is their rightful place in history after destroying Iraq, and wasting $$$trillions, and destroying the constitutional basis of our nation.
When civilization collapses they may be surprised to find those hedge funds are not worth so much and when their great mansions are either underwater or have no water, what then.
Democracy was a bad idea, but Republicans are much worse.
"You know you're old when you can remember a time when you seem to remember when there were patriotic republicans in congress.
I'm glad I don't have children and grand-children, because I'd worry every hour of every day if they had any future at all.
Societies, Suicidal Tendencies...
Its worst than that... Now that they have polluted us to many decades of hell, they want to be even more efficent by sprinking us with plutonium radiation. They think they are just going bust bunkers with these bombs.
Someone please give them some high quality Opium from Afganistan. That should be easy to get these days. FedEX it.
anney October 28th, 2007 2:56 pm
Thanks for your comments on my post. Your post is more up to date referring to the NNPT, I'm referring to the mutual destruction element of the detente between the USA and the USSR. The countries you mentioned have not attacked anyone with nuclear weapons.
I agree with you that if the primary signatories to the Treaty violate it's provisions, than the Treaty basically is nullified. The present administration has shown it's disdain for prior obligations under treaties and has crippled our ability to hold the higher ground. It also has eroded our credibility by redefining terms, a trick Bush learned from his Dad.
I've wondered who the poor excuse for humanity was who came up with the bankrupt dogma that is "neo con."
ORCHESTRATED DIVERSIONS
Bush's PR machine has learned how to keep the public off balance with diversions just enough to lose focus on what he's really doing, until the last one dies off and another one is created in the upcoming lull.
Those close to Bush admit he's fixated on the Iraq war and can do little else, which means all the other issues get delegated by default.
Not only is the most powerful man in the world not capable of abstract critical thought beyond simple dichotomies, neither is he able to prioritize even the use of what meager mental resources he has between the war and everything else.
He's switched to the 1 or 0 position all the time. When he speaks, the context is always obvious, like he's reminding you of something he said long ago and is barely worth repeating, or it's something you knew anyway. Bush ran out of originals a long time ago.
Bush can barely contain his contempt for the audience who doesn't understand that he needs to get back to his top secret war that allows him to pull all those levers at will without a shred of oversight.
Bush is preoccupied with Iran not because of the trumped up nuclear capability but because Iran could prevent him from succeeding in Iraq. As with the WMD in Iraq, the Iran nuke issue is the perfect excuse to neutralize Iran's influence in Iraq, or even if it doesn't, it will certainly prolong the war in Iraq.
The surge was the most effective diversion yet along with Petraeus. Podhoretz is the kind of diversion everyone in the Bush Admin likes because he sets the upper limit for what Bush can do while serving as an unofficial spokesman to Iran.
Rest assured, Podhoretz is not speaking out as a loose cannon or just for Giuliani. Not that he was coaxed to do it since he already believed in it, but the timing and distribution for MSM was clearly arranged.
What's the most important issue to be diverted? Any threat to funds for the war. As long as that's safe, they could care less about public reaction to anything said or done.
For another diversion, see salon.com for an over-the-top email message from Public Affairs Officer Colonel Boylan in Iraq to Glenn Greenwald that generated over 300 comments. It may be enough to get the Colonel fired or it may be ignored entirely or it may even be a fake designed to humiliate Greenwald in a Dan Rather sort of way. But any way it's sliced, it keeps attention away from the war funds.
DAKOTALIN, good point. Bush is doing it better so far, at least he is following the script to perfection. One thng different is, Hitler was intelligent, but far to egotistical and paranoid, which was his downfall. Had Hitler been assinated or died, say in 1940, Germany would have been hard to beat, unless his replacement attacked Russia also. I believe Bush is far more dangerous than Hitler and with Cheney for a brain he is very very dangerous for all of mankind.
There's a little bit of something in Iraq/Iran for all the big players: resources for Big Energy, huge contracts for the m.i.c., lebensraum for Israel.
The fact that this war has dragged on as long as it has, been as expensive as it has, failed to have been properly questioned, and has no real opposition in D.C., tells us that this tripartite group essentially runs the US: Big Oil, Big Guns, Big Israel. All predicated, very thinly I might add, as a "war on terror" to sell it to the American populace. The MSM likewise seems to largely be run by one or more of the three aforementioned interests.
Has anybody else ever wondered whether the secret pact Bush swore to fulfill with his Skull & Bones clan was to accomplish Hitler's dream of taking over the world, using many of his methods, only doing it "better"?
Norman Podhoretz has been a mouthpiece for the Israeli government since the late 1960s. It has become clear that the goal of the Anglo-American-Israeli/Zionist Axis of Evil is the destruction of the economies and cultures of every nation in the Middle East that shows any inclination to oppose the Axis-imposed domination of Israel over the region. The Axis Powers have already virtually destroyed the infrastructures of Iraq and Palestine, they've started on Lebanon, and are contemplating turning Iran into another wasteland.
Two questions I would like to see Podhoretz asked:
1)What impact is an air/missile strike on Iran likely to have on the price of a barrel of oil?
2) How long is a president who took an action that, say, quadrupled the price at the gas pump likely to last in office? Clinton, remember, was impeached for something as trivial as a blow job.
This man Podhoretz belongs in a psyc ward. For Rudy to have him as an advisor means he's mainstream with the repugs, of course. Dangerous times call for desparate counter measures to these fear-monger agents of death and war profiteering. It's time to end this madness.
Why is this punk still living?He should be charged with inciting wars like Bushieboy and Dikocheney.He is indeed a terriost of the higher degree like 7000 degree FH.He should be hung with the rope bush/cheney will get someday.Any military man that interferes with the hanging should be hung also.
I believe this fellow is in on the racket.
EveningLand,
Yes, Shadia Drury, not Sheila!
zhongman
== That doesn't mean we should just let them pursue a h-bomb, but maybe a policy of making it very clear the ends of this goal will result in their destruction, just as we did with other atomic powers.
Of the list of countries that developed illegal "atomic powers", in violation of the NPT, which ones did US policy decree that if they achieved their goal, it would result in their destruction?
India?
Pakistan?
North Korea?
Israel?
And which of the five original "atomic power" countries have illegally refused to conduct general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control?
United States
Russia
the United Kingdom
France
China
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Non-Proliferation_Treaty
If countries freely violate either of the two primary objectives of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, no new development and disarmament, it is essentially null and void, and anyone may develop nuclear weapons if they wish.
Once they violated the terms of the NNPT, the US and Israel in particular have no lawful right to attempt to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, if that's what they're doing. And no scholars that I've read believe they are. The US and Israel have put themselves in the position of a murderer who wants to prosecute other murderers without facing prosecution himself.
If Chomsky, Zinn and other progressive jews received as much MSM attention as such Zionist conservatives as Podhoretz do, the truth would float to the surface for all to see.
When the media determines everything, including who will be POTUS, online warriors have to take matters to the people. Online referendums should be a must for progressive organizing. At first, without legal force, but in the end online referendums could become direct democracy with no corrupted professional politicians needed.
Oops, sorry about that, the first line of my post should read:
"Here is the link to Strauss's Judaism"
To RadicalConfucian: here's the link to Strauss Judaism.
I begin with a quotation from the Shadia (not Sheila, as anney has it) Drury article referenced in the post immediately preceding yours:
"Strauss's disciples have inherited a superiority complex as well as a persecution complex. They are convinced that they are the superior few who know the truth and are entitled to rule."
The complex of superiority and paranoid sentiments (the feeling that one is being persecuted) that one observes in the Straussians are both features of Strauss's doctrine.
Both these features provide the link to Strauss's Jewishness: indeed, both pervade the Torah's account of the genesis and foundation of Israel, as well the Prophetic Books, which relate the history of Israel after its foundation.
The other central themes of Strauss's political philosophy, i.e., tyranny as the best form of government, subordination as the natural and preferred relation between ruler and ruled, or leader and led, the place of women in the household, where they will produce the future warriors required for a society in a perpetual state of war (the veritable goal pursued by our contemporary anti-abortionists, which they cloak in the language of being pro-life and other hypocritical terminology), the death penalty, the life of prayer and sacrifices to the blood-thirsty, vengenful, and tyrannical divinity (Jahweh or God), all the other rituals of worship that are meant to structure everyday life, et cetera are all to be found in the Torah (read Leviticus, for example).
By the way, slavery, too, is countenanced by the Torah: is there anything in Strauss's doctrine that really opposes slavery?
alexnosal October 27th, 2007 1:42 pm
"... 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."
That last statement was of course the bulk of our strategy against the former USSR for the duration of the cold war. However in this case, Iraq could possibly hurt us but not destroy us, they on the other hand would probably cease to exist after we're finished with them. It really doesn't make sense from their point of view. That doesn't mean we should just let them pursue a h-bomb, but maybe a policy of making it very clear the ends of this goal will result in their destruction, just as we did with other atomic powers. If we break the governments that hold this technology then we have a much greater risk that this material will end up in the rouges hands. The "bomb" is power to those who hold it and they will probably not be in a hurry to share that power.
Either way, through advances in science we will know as soon as they reach a goal of a weapon and then that would be the time to consider striking them, not now. Also weapons grade plutonium has a "finger print" and it can be determined where it came from just as they knew the anthrax spores (sent to congress when they were voting n the US Patriot Act) came from a US Army facility.
The policy of strike first has put both the US ,and Israel backs against the wall of world wide opinion. Even if we dominate because of our military strength, the rest of the world can find a thousand ways to undermine our power and influence and we will loose the means to maintain our military superiority. In the case of Israel one can see that they have only bought time for their enemies to grow around them. Fighting is what you do to save yourself, not to influence others. I hardly think we are on the verge of defeat as a society, except possibly from within.
I'm not sure that being identified as the "head nut" is much of an honor.
naryannsalo, my sentiments exactly. Norman: how much do you have invested in war machinery? Isn't the old saying "Follow the money?"
Oh yes, wise guru, definitely the quickest way to start WW4, and the best way to ensure we'll all be fighting WW5 with pointed sticks and rocks. Humanity has peaked, let the descent into ignorance and oblivion begin.
Everyday reveals that the fall down the rabbit hole goes on.
Have these people no sense of irony?
Right. Of course not. That takes a dab of imagination, at the least.
Iran continues to take advantage of the position we put them in.
Shame on them.
But then, bombing Iran will drive the price of oil to what? $110-$125 a barrel?
Brilliant!
Not a single name on the list of PNAC momsers that inspires confidence. Mostly defrocked preppies and apologists for the relgion of avarice and racial hatred.
If these persons have signed on to destroy our Republic they are simply base traitors and guilty of treason. Give them what they aspire to give to all others.
Podhoretz in particular needs to get a grip.
I don't think the anti-semitic comments are helpful here at the CD comments board, or anywhere else for that matter. Of course the PNAC is established on the basis of Strauss's philosophy, but Strauss was a scholar of primarily ancient Greek thought (esp. Plato) and I'm not sure to what extent his Jewish heritage influenced him at all. Many Jewish people have discarded the aspects of their tradition that emphasize social justice and a messianic hope of political renewal. Likewise, many have abandoned even the spiritual traditions in which their culture was wrought. So it makes as much sense to blame "the Jews" as it does to blame "the Chinese" for atrocities carried out by the Chinese Communist Leadership. My point being that many Chinese today have lost much of the spiritual/intellectual tradition that shaped their culture (COnfucian, Daoist, Buddhist, etc.) I assume this Podhoretz fellow is either a dogmatic lunatic or an atheist, but he is not likely a faithful follower of the Jewish religious tradition. So attacks on "Jewishness" really serve no purpose, other than to anger the Jewish community and alienate middle of the road folks. We would do better to focus on issues and individuals than the rather uninteresting fact that many Jewish people are in positions of power and influence over the US foreign policy decisions....As I write this I am thinking of Israel, its history and current practices, and am thinking about deleting everything I've written..because to take religion out of the description here would be a mistake..but once again it can't explain everything..after all many of the early zionists were socialist (historical materialist atheist types)...vexing! I in fact find myself struggling against anti-Semitism in my own person when I meet or mingle with some Jewish people who seem completely unperturbed by the actions and policies of the Israeli gov't/army...So I understand the anger, but it is unproductive.
Pacem in Terris
apefist
== "Not to split hairs, but Leo Strauss is generally considered the founder of neo-conservatism." ==
True, and people might benefit from doing a bit of reading about his "political" philosophy. It certainly makes out citizens to be sheep who can and must be led around by the nose, with all their weaknesses and beliefs manipulated to drive them where a ruler wants them.
For those unfamiliar with the kind of impact Leo Strauss has had on the Bush administration, here is an excellent summary by Sheila Drury of the relationship of Leo Strauss to the American neoconservative hold on them.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6750.htm
The Project for a New American Century (PNAC) was born of a coterie of Straussians, those who were either his proteges or followers. All are in the Republican party, some are members of the administration or "scholars" and others supporting the administration.
Here is the PNAC "Statement of Principles":
http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm
And the signatories to this statement of principles:
Elliott Abrams
Gary Bauer
William J. Bennett
Jeb Bush
Dick Cheney
Eliot A. Cohen
Midge Decter
Paula Dobriansky
Steve Forbes
Aaron Friedberg
Francis Fukuyama
Frank Gaffney
Fred C. Ikle
Donald Kagan
Zalmay Khalilzad
I. Lewis Libby
Norman Podhoretz
Dan Quayle
Peter W. Rodman
Stephen P. Rosen
Henry S. Rowen
Donald Rumsfeld
Vin Weber
George Weigel
Paul Wolfowitz
I did read a few months ago that Francis Fukuyama has withdrawn his support from the Bush administration, saying that it has failed in furthering the aims of the PNAC. I daresay that's more through bungling than a lack of intent.
Of course, none of Strauss's democracy-destroying principles are laid out here: they operate just below the goals and aims. Still, most interesting to me is this PNAC goal, which lets the imperialistic intention slip through:
== we need to accept responsibility for America's unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles. ==
Any thinking person will wonder why in the hell other sovereign countries would want an international order friendly to US security, US prosperity, and US principles.
This one statement puts American foreign policy into a nutshell: if you don't give us what we want, we'll force you to do it with guns and bombs. The guns and bombs are provided for in this statement:
== we need to increase defense spending significantly if we are to carry out our global
responsibilities today and modernize our armed forces for the future ==
The PNAC goals and aims, with Leo Strauss's contributing principles, can be achieved only if America's democratic government is destroyed, and the Bush administration has done very well at smashing it. Only a few more pillars of American democracy and freedom remain standing that are laid out in the Bill of Rights.
Israel is surrounded and the first war it loses is the last war it gets to fight. It will be gone (and the US will be leading the effort to defend and relocate the refugees). So you can expect its supporters and lobbyists to be a little shrill.
Israel's nuclear weapons are the ultimate equalizer and probably would be used against enemy forces if a war was going badly. If Iran gets nuclear weapons of any sort, Israel has to take things to the next level and devlop MAD capacity to level Cairo, Damascus,Tehran... and the potential for an unprecedentd disaster grows with it.
Iran is being extremely foolish. If a terrorist some day explodes a nuke in Israel, Tehran is gone, even if the device came from elswhere. Israel's end will be Iran's end too. Iran does not need nuclear power in a land blessed with oil. Its obvious what the Iranians are after.
That being said, this potential situation is at least 10-15 years off, and many Israelis understand the only way to lasting peace is to stop expansion of Israel and build a strong regional economy that can absorb the Palestinian refugees. The US, Russia and the UN need to keep the pressure on Iran to ensure nuclear weapons are not developed. The solution is not to bomb Iran and enrage the entire middle east. It will be the efforts for peace that are set back 10 years!
Iran has a counterstrike capacity. Podhoretz has made the calculation that Iran will just sit and take his short cut to diplomacy and sanctions, or the damage from the counterstrike is acceptable in the big picture. He also realizes the opportunity is now with the neocon, neo-colonial, radical zionist, christian whacko, export American values, oil grabbing militaristic coalition in the white house that isn't afraid to gamble on war and lose.
Its really scary that he is trying to groom Giuliani to replace Bush as the front man for these radicals. There has been a lot of discussion on these threads about third parties and no difference offered by the democrats. We need to send these dangerous Republicans packing from Washington. They are intimidating compromised liars, have an agenda of aggression, do not respect our constitution, and don't represent our country. They need to be buried in a landslide election. Even if we have to vote for that little crook Hillary and her sleazy husband.
Then lets pray that between now and inauguration day Americans don't wake up one day to find Iran has been bombed (along with US bases all over the middle east, and Haifa and Tel Aviv. Hezbollah rockets of all sorts being fired into Israel, and maybe a nuclear aircraft carrier sent to the bottom of the Gulf by a barrage of Russian built Iranian cruise missiles.)
PodHORRORetz spoke at a book signing here in NYC recently. The audience attacked him verbally re: PNAC documents, 9/11, NeoCon ideology, the present Iraq/Afghanistan quagmire... a lot of loud insults. It was great. Americans are not so dumbed down, after all. Only a small number actually supported his views. He started yelling at those who were yelling at him, telling them to shut up. Someone videotaped it (probably on youtube) following him out into the street and they continued their barrage of truthful insults against this evil f#*k.
Attack journalism, alive & well in the US of A!
Why does this Mr P think a few bombs Nuclear or not will do anything in Iran?
The only thing it might do is unite the Iranians even more.
Anybody remember the Iran and Iraq War where they charged each other and were slaughtered. Look at us in Iraq ?
The contry is worse off then under Saddam. Innocents die everyday just like with Saddam.
Now we have Turkey ready to invade the Kurds up north.
This Mr. P just ain't with it.
If we use nukes all that will do is give the go ahead for other countries to use them.
We sure do not have the armies to invade Iran and set up another puppet government like Iraq;s.
If we attack Iran 911 in our country will llok like a picnic. We will have people exploding themselves in shopping malls all over this country.
The flow of oil will almost stop from the Arab countries,
Then what Mr. P? Your only choices are to nuke even more along with Israel sending their nukes.
Methinks we were better off with The Cold War.
Oh, I forgot the leader Of Russia is rattling nukes claiming if we put a missle shield in Poland we may well have another type Cuban Missle Crisis . Are we going to nuke Russia too Mr. P?
Anyone want to bet Mr. P's stock portfolio is chucked full of defense stocks?
"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."
which means what? means you ain't shit Mr Pusswhore. not an elected official. not a senator, not a law enforcement officer and not a military man. a little asshole with a big mouth. i'm tired of our nation having to put up with these self appointed guardians of malevolent bullshit. "pre-eminent", my ass. Pre-Enema. He should be scorned with every cell of the body
send this disgusting old turd to Iran and let him do the job himself if he thinks bombing is so important. a human trashbag.
he's not a "founder", he's part of the anus that extcreted out "neo-conservatism", the vile waste product that infects our nation.
The world is hosed...
AmeriKKKa is the real threat to global peace....
We're hosed.....
I saw some talking head TV show after the Iranian President talked at Columbia. The pundit talked about how crazy and dangerous Ahminejad (sp) was. His proof: Ahminejad questions the holocaust and denies the existence of gays in Iran, both admittedly kooky. But his solution, bomb them back to the stone age, seemed totally non-linear. I thought, "This guy is crazy". Then he said, "My friend Norman Podhoretz has been suggeting this for a while now". Then I understood. A neocon shill pretending to be a journalist. And the other people on the show just smiled and nodded their heads. I thought, "We're hosed if people swallow this stuff so easily". Then I see the Republican debates with Rudy, Mitt, John and Fred fighting for the "I hate Iran the most" award and Hillary is little or no better. Unless Stephen Colbert (please, oh please!) gets elected one of these people will probably have his finger on the button in about 16 monghts. Folks, we're hosed.
The neocons and zionazis are creating terrible blowback for Jews everywhere.
Who in the hell is this nasty old fossil anyway? He is elected to what position? He is a representitive of which state?
He needs to be put down as in put to sleep.
"You'd wake up one morning and the strikes would have been ordered and carried out during the night."
Then you'd brush your teeth listening to news about Iranian missles barraging US carriers in the gulf, Iranian tanks firing on US soldiers in Iraq, and Vlad Putin saying the opposite of
"sorry for calling the US a madman with a razor blade the other day."
Some part of Podhoretz's 77 year old brain is either a walk in chamber for Satan or has imploded in strange isolation from his ability to superficially cogitate and communicate.
Not to split hairs, but Leo Strauss is generally considered the founder of neo-conservatism. It's just unnerving that Podhoretz and the rest of his slimy ilk are bent on imperialism by spreading fear of the "islamo-fascists": their term used ad nauseum as rhetoric to promote their violent agenda. They are this generation's conquistadors who view each conquered land as a brand new market ready to exploit. They don't get that orphans of those murdered in their cause make lousy customers.
Why bomb Iran? Because they freakin' can. Absolute power has already corrupted these guys, absolutely.
Fasten your seatbelts,ladies and gentlemen. Here we go again....."CAKEWALK II"
What purpose does this 'news story' serve but to reinforce the idea (already planted in the mainstream media) that bombing Iran might not be such a bad idea? No surprise that the London Telegraph that publishes it is an avowedly conservative newspaper. But - sadly - no surprise also that the supposedly progressive British daily newspapers (The Guardian and The Independent) are not blowing whistles that everyone can hear.
Dreamertoo --- I appreciate your comment; I believe there's alot of truth in your words.
You wrote:
"People like Podhoretz and Hitler have made choices in their lives that have led them to hate themselves and their lives. They encourage other people to make choices that will lead them to hate themselves and their lives too. They do this out of hate.
"They could stop hating themselves and their lives, but are not willing to do the work that would require.
"People who follow them do so because they are frightened and confused and because they tell themselves that doing what someone else tells them to do is not the same as doing it themselves. (This is actually how Podhoretz and Hitler got started.)
"They are no different then you or I; only the circumstances of their lives and/or the choices they have made are different."
-------------------------------------------
I noticed that a number of comments above included questions - Why? How?
If you are at all interested in how this craziness can come into existence --- you might want to check out the book "Bush on the Couch," written by Justin Frank, MD.
It is a psychological study of one prototype, namely, George W. Bush.
Repulsive old swine!
militantliberal - why stop with Normie? There's a long list of deserving droppables!
Way back up near the top of these postings, somebody had a good idea. Why not take the whole Executive,Legislative and Judicial Branches, except for those who are outspokenly anti war, load them into a big transport. Equip each one with a parachute pack with a brick in it. Stencil on their shirts, "I'm Sorry!"
Now, either fly over and carpet bomb Iran with them, or fly over DC and carpet bomb it. Either way, we would git rid of the major problems that are crippling our nation. A few hours of scrubbing and sluicing would clean up the mess and these bastards would have a closeup of what they were advocating for the rest of the world.
Then, perhaps we could find some people who revered the Constitution and would put it back in the Halls of Government, intact and functioning.
Once that was done, then we could rein in the megabuckmeisters and their huge corporations and get our country back. (A pipe dream, but what a nice one!)
Evil is not defined by religion, race or sex. It is an individual trait that can only be recognized individually. To brand any religious sect, or even to implicate any religious sect, by the actions of some individuals which are associated with any particular sect is not fair and it is not honest.
No doubt, there are many evil people involved with the U.S. who are denominated Jewish. And there have been a high number of such people in influencial positions in the U.S., especially since the U.S. championed Israel after the mass murder scheme of the Nazis, because their close interaction in the Israel project required it. But the telling fact is that the U.S. was just as evil in their dealings with other nations and peoples before there was an Israel so the fact that many of the people who assist the U.S. now are Jewish is simply a demographic and cannot be construed as a condemnation of Jewry or even as a principle motivator for the U.S.
If you need an example of just how rotten they were before there were a lot of Jews in the U.S. administration then you should read "A LITTLE MATTER OF GENOCIDE" by Ward Churchill, copyright 1997, published by CITY LIGHTS books, and then you will learn of a real genocide that qualifies as a Holocaust, as opposed to the mass murder of Jews by Nazis which is so small in comparison to the near extermination of the U.S. indigenous peoples that to give the killing of Jews that exclusive label is bordering on fraud.
By the way, religion has absolutely nothing to do with any of this.
What happened to News in Common Dream News and Views? We seem to complain about mainstream media failing to give coverage to progressive views, and yet there is nothing here about the big anti-war demonstration on Saturday 27. What gives?
There's no question that both Podhoretz and Jew-liani are part of Israeli fifth column in the U.S.
I would like to personally send a thank you note to Russian President Vladimir Putin for recognizing that our president is like "a madman running around with a razor blade".
Putin's warnings and lack of cooperation with the sanctions, I hope will accomplish what the Congress and all the Peace Marches on Washington would be Unable achieve, stop George from bombing Iran.
Whatever happened to M.A.D. every country in the world knows that if they even throw a firecracker our way it will be picked up by satellite and within minutes that country would be vaporized.
We are not going to be able to stop these rouge nations from developing a Bomb anymore than we were able to stop India and Pakistan it is just a matter of a few years here or there.
If we are going to share this planet with other countries for the next couple of millenniums, doesn't it make sense to try to be neighborly, use a little diplomacy, make friends with these nations? I am sure we have a lot in common like the desire to keep breathing and avoid world annihilation.
People like Podhoretz and Hitler have made choices in their lives that have led them to hate themselves and their lives. They encourage other people to make choices that will lead them to hate themselves and their lives too. They do this out of hate.
They could stop hating themselves and their lives, but are not willing to do the work that would require.
People who follow them do so because they are frightened and confused and because they tell themselves that doing what someone else tells them to do is not the same as doing it themselves. (This is actually how Podhoretz and Hitler got started.)
They are no different then you or I; only the circumstances of their lives and/or the choices they have made are different.
Norman Podhoretz, like Alan Derserowitz, shows shameful qualities. Once these men were proud examples of liberal progressive human rights advocates. Now they are shameful dregs of depravity.
FOUNDER OF NEOCON MOVEMENT:
US 'MUST BOMB IRAN'
How about a headline saying something like:
"MAJORITY OF AMERICANS DESIREOUS OF PEACE AND JUSTICE CALL FOR THE BOMBING OF WASHINGTON" ??
dreaming is free!
anney said:
"I have a kid's question. Why does Podhoretz hate Iranians? Why does he want to kill them?
I do not understand individuals who hate entire groups of people enough to want to kill the whole group. That's what Hitler did. He thought Podhoretz's people were scum. Is that why Podhoretz wants to kill Iranians? Did he take on Hitler's mantle?"
It's interesting you brought this up. Iran was formerly "Persia" and also thought to be the "home" of the original "Aryan" race. Does Aryan sound familiar? It is also said, Hitler and the Nazi's took the swastika symbol from what at one time was an Aryan symbol. Hitler and his German friends are not Aryan, they were wannabe Aryans. I would say the crazy old fool blames Iran for Hitler...
To all here who appear to be in a state of denial regarding the Jewish (Zionist, or whatever you want to call it) influence on American foreign policy, just Google PNAC (Project for a New American Century) and see who its
authors are. Kristol is one name that's high on the list.
Why do progressive people keep thinking that the godless nation of Israel is somehow running the U.S.? The U.S. made Israel and that fascist state is nothing more than a forward outpost of U.S. foreign policy. It is maintained by the U.S. because it keeps tensions and discord high in the Middle East and that is exactly the kind of divisive policy that the U.S. has always pursued in every region of non-white citizenry that it's ever been involved with. The reason Israel is so well armed is because they are the U.S. in the way that Hawaii and Puerto Rico are the U.S. The only practical difference is that Israel is in a high tension zone so it gets lots of press coverage slanted to make Israel appear the victim.
It must be strange for the stupid imperialists to know that their whole evil scheme is going to fail absolutely and yet they persist in continuing with the charade that they are still the ones who are dictating policy. As it stands, they are only reacting to the declining circumstances of their world position and, unfortunately for some people, the trash that runs the U.S. are not intelligent enough to know how to get back on their old evil track so they lash out irrationally in the hope that death and destruction will somehow right their ship, a strategy which has always worked for them before. Even though the past leaders of those gangs of morons, such as Thatcher and Clinton and all of the other worthless human trash, pretend to be optimistic in that they always write memoirs in which they praise their counterparts with compliments that are always contrary to their real traits, they and that whole gang of human refuse know that the end is coming swiftly for their kind.
But then, it's little wonder that hardly any citizen in the capitalist world sphere can have an appreciation of the enormity of the change which is about to descend on them, considering that the capitalist's propagandistic media machine, such as CNN, BBC and Fox and the others, never publish anything that could allow the viewers to have a true picture of what's going on in their (my) world. From a strategic point of view, Latin America, which the U.S. had thought was safely in it's pocket, has rejected the U.S. and is well on it's way to becoming a union such as the EU. They have just set up a continental bank which is headquartered in Venezuela and they are building a pipeline that will stretch from north to south and east to west in South America and they will be going with it into Central America. It is these type of actions which will solidify the socialist base and they are the same reasons why the U.S. trys to, unsuccessfully, vilify Hugo Chavez, because he is the principal proponent of Latin American unity and socialism for the twenty-first century.
After Latin America is successful, Africa will follow suit when they see the splendid results. You can see what happens next, the old domino theory, but this time it's a real cascade and the capitalists will not be able to survive as a system once they have no mono-cultivators to exploit and the whole world sees the quality of life in the socialist countries eclipsing that of the capitalist gulags.
I have a kid's question. Why does Podhoretz hate Iranians? Why does he want to kill them?
I do not understand individuals who hate entire groups of people enough to want to kill the whole group. That's what Hitler did. He thought Podhoretz's people were scum. Is that why Podhoretz wants to kill Iranians? Did he take on Hitler's mantle?
OK, now this gets into the truly suicidal. Have these gentlemen never studied traditional warfare? Not even for a moment? One, you need funds. Two, you need weapons. Three, you need troops. You need more than that but without those, you really can't make war. If a hostile nation stormed our home border, we probably could not muster a proper defense of home ground because our military is stretched so thin, yet these jackasses are talking as though our resources and abilities are limitless. Are they insane? Just plain out insane? It's the only explanation I can think of.
"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."
What do you think a rational Iranian would do in the light of such a direct and imminent threat?
Presumably, this right to a pre-emptive strike only applies to America alone?
It seem as though it has never crossed the collective neocon mind that America does not have a monopoly on the right to a pre-emptive strike!
W.H. Auden wrote in 1939:
"I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return."
Zionism from its inception has used vicious and violent methods dealing with the Palestinians which proves Auden's poem to the teeth.
For centuries, Jews were persecuted in Europe; so once when they were in a position to deal with others, the oppressed became the oppressor.
Norman Podhoretz callous remark reeks with contempt and total disregard for other human beings; otherwise, how can any sane human being be so blind to the consequences (death and destruction) of his utterance!
The sad state of affair is the fact that Israeli's right wingers (the Likud Party which is very similar to Hezbollah) and their American cohorts devise and advise our political leaders in our Middle East policies!
The Bush-Cheney cabal must be stopped before another unnecessary pre-emptive disastrous war is upon us.
We are not allowed to criticize... when one tries to discuss the reality ... others try to twist it to serve their own ends. They of course think they are right, so in their minds twisting the debate to serve their ends is always excusable.
Sane minds can see that extremists whether a Podhoretz or an antisemite, while serving different aims, nevertheless think in the same thought processes. Attempts to discuss an issue immediately get side tracked by extremists into extremist talk.
One can't criticize the extremist leadership in Israel because extremists say ..."It's the jews!". No it isn't ...it's the leadership. Equally one cannot criticize the extremists amongst the Palestinians or others because other there will be the inevitable opposing extremists who will say "It's the muslims!"
At the risk of disturbing ...um... all sides. We are being made blind by the blinders extremists insist that we wear. To see an issue clearly, remove all the names, the labels and the predigested assumptions ...and look for what extremists don't want you to see.
Another way is to proof out our thought processes by applying the 'put on the other shoe' test. Immediately extremists on both sides try to get you to reject that. The "we are not them because they do 'this" rationale. Look at the thought process and if it is a formula, the sane recognize that reality is never so simple. Reality is ALWAYS complex... but no to extremists. For them it is simple. 70% in the USA oppose what the Bush administration have done and would do. Does Bush and Co. still represent all Americans, including many posters on CD who are Americans? They live here so therefore, by extremist thought processes, all are collectively guilty...including themselves? They don't see what they don't want to see... simple as that. It is as if no one opposes... yet we do.
Try this > Substitute the extremist leadership in Israel for our own and see how saying "It's the jews!" sounds? "It's the Americans they want this!" No we don't... our leadership does. Lots of jews oppose the extremists in the Israeli government. Just like lots of Americans oppose their own government's extremists. Those who oppose Bush's positions in America and live here somehow don't include themselves in the broad brush they would paint others with. The > "They are all like that" nonsense.
Just because you are jewish doesn't mean you support what Israel does, just like if you are an American that doesn't mean you support Bush and just because you are muslim that doesn't mean you want to support Al Queda etc.! Extremists don't want clear thinking because they simply want... what they want.
To those of us who fight and struggle to keep our heads above the muddied waters of spin and manipulation, to work for change, I say > keep your heads up real high because the extremist thinking is drowning many.
As for Podhoretz and his ilk... remove the labels and current spin and you'll notice ...he is saying what he has always been saying years before the current spin. Yeah. The neocon plan was always Iran. Right now they have found a new causa belli in pushing the "we can't wait"/mushroom cloud scenario ...um...old causa belli scenario?
But when you try to address these empire lovers (america should be feared not admired etc.) extremist positions...some vile idiot starts screaming about "the jews!" instead, as if all jews simply don't want peace. Just like when you try to criticize them (from another side) some vile idiot starts screaming "the muslims!" as if all muslims don't want peace and are all terrorists.
Discern for yourself what is just and right as you believe within yourselves. The truth will set ...everyone free. Spin puts on blinders and when 'blindered' one becomes blind to the truth.
Peace.
VDP --- Sorry, my friend, but I feel compelled to say this:
If you don't realize that you are Podhoretz and Podhoretz is you, (yukky as this prospect may seem!) then IMHO you don't have a clue about the direction we humans need to take --- if we are to ever have a hell in snowball's chance of climbing out of the hole we're still digging ourselves into.
I do get your feelings, though.
Often feel the same damn way myself.
Problem is - acting on or even believing in those feelings only gonna create more of the same. Separation from the core of our common humanness, that's a bottom-line problem.
In some ways I don't like what I'm sayin' here any more than I expect you will.
"Are you saying that underneath our seemingly massive differences we are one?"
Yep, 'fraid so.
A question: You able to dance on more than one level of awareness at the same time? It can be a learned skill.
In sum:
"If you want money for minds that hate,
All I can tell you brother is, you'll have to wait."
Podhoretz is a lunatic, but if that's where we seek council, what does that make us......Pathetic, ludicrous, disingenuous, abysmal, despicable, etc,etc.
BUT, logically and with deference to the old adage of "follow the money", Nothing sells distraction from an imploding economy like the ravages of WAR. WAR will make 'em forget about a dollar dropping like a lead weight. WAR will make them forget about the recent Wall Street study that shows that fraud is in every transaction at every trading desk. War will make them think their President is not a nerdowell. War will make them not realize that there is not but one of their congressmen who is worth the salary he draws from the TAX PAYERS(DK). War will help them forget about the lives wasted in Iraq AND IN NEW ORLEANS. War will get their attention off the fact that all the Evangelicals are beginning to think that the sum total of their lives has been a perpetual SNIPE HUNT. WAR will make them forget that the KEY STONE COPS LATER BECAME THE DEPARTMENT OF FEMA AND HOME LAND SECURITY. feel free to add.........
What can I say after all these tributes to reason and planetary sanity? What can anyone say to those who proudly lead us to define "enemy," and use "enemy" as target, to eliminate "enemy," to conduct a campaign of genecoide/holocaust against "enemy," and to bless such actions in the name of "freedom" and "democracy"? I say that the Congress must act against the administration, disarm it, and reinstate the Constitution and the humanitarian values promised in it. And if the Congress does not act, but continues to "say," we, the people must act, in ways that will move us all to accept the responsibility to save our country, a responsibility given to us by those who signed the Declaration of Independence.
Neo Conmen are at it again. Iraq all over and as always, and the "Western regimes are whiter than white". All this false bravado will fall flat on the US regime once again.
What about the Israeli WMD?
One last thing...what is the US military's fucking obsession with 'bunker buster bombs' that penetrate deep into the Earth? Any shrinks want to chime in? I recall vividly how Powell and others kept telling the world that Saddam and Iraqi's had incredible labyrinths of underground weapons of mass destruction production labs and Dr. Doom control centers.......and then we find Saddam in a spider hole? We need to seriously think about upholding our citizen duty to protect the Constitution and destroy whatever forces abuse, alter or dishonor it.....that's the hefty responsiblity we were given by the Founders (see 2nd Amendment for some evidence). Oh, gotta go, there's a black helicopter outside my window.
Can't we just go mob stomp this douchebag and his son? Why the fuck do I have to live with dickheads like this fucking it up for everyone? How many battles has he or his pissant ancestors fought? He's a big fag with a small dick who gets wood when others fight and , oh mercy, bleed.
Set them back five years?
How many generations has this Guardian of Zion set the United States back so far?
What will be left for humanities children besides a Neo-Stone Age?
stepfour I think it is right after we bomb Tehran, and destroy all those nasty Islamofascists, and leave the Israeli-fascists to their dirty, underhanded, callous, schemes. It might just surface then, but with the media coverage we get, I doubt it.
When's Judeo-Fascism Awareness Day?
voting for Nader will solve this problem.