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Could Dennis Ross Set the Stage for Future War with Iran?
The threat that the United States would launch a military attack on Iran has never been "taken off the table," but you'd be hard pressed to find many people who think that a U.S. attack on Iran in the near term is a realistic possibility.
Even the Bush Administration nixed an Israel attack on Iran, as the New York Times reported Sunday. (Haaretz reported this months ago.) President-elect Obama pledged as a candidate to abandon the "strategy" of isolation and engage Iran diplomatically. And the U.S. already has two wars going (three, if you count the war on Gaza, which is being waged with U.S. weapons and approval, and which is doing as much political damage to the U.S. in the Muslim world as any war waged by the U.S. directly.)
But many of the decisions and actions that led to the U.S. attack on Iraq in March 2003 were not taken in 2003, but long before. If we had the opportunity for a do-over, wouldn't we scrutinize those decisions and actions much more carefully? Decisions are being taken now which could set the stage for war with Iran in the future.
Recent press reports have indicated that Dennis Ross has the inside track to be a "super-envoy" in the Obama Administration with responsibility for diplomacy concerning Iran. Putting Dennis Ross in charge of diplomatic outreach to Iran would be a akin to putting Bernard Madoff in charge of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ross's views on diplomatic engagement with Iran are the mirror image of the diplomatic engagement President-elect Obama promised during the campaign.
A November 3rd article in the New York Times noted that a report from the "Bipartisan Policy Center" proposed blockading Iran's gasoline imports - an act of war - and says that "a military strike is a feasible option." The article noted that the report's authors included Dennis Ross.
According to press reports, Ross's portfolio at State would include the issue of the relationships between Iran and Palestinian groups. During the Clinton Administration, Ross played a leading role in failed U.S. negotiations with the Israelis and Palestinians.
Daniel Kurtzer, an adviser to Obama, has written that American and Arab negotiators saw Ross as biased and not "an honest broker." One Arab negotiator said, "The perception always was that Dennis [Ross] started from the Israeli bottom line, that he listened to what Israel wanted and then tried to sell it to the Arabs." Aaron David Miller, who also served on the U.S. team, has written that under Clinton U.S. negotiators acted as "Israel's lawyer," rather than focusing on what would enable both sides to reach agreement.
We're seeing today the disastrous consequences in Gaza of Dennis Ross-style "diplomacy." Do we really want "Israel's lawyer" in charge of U.S. diplomacy with Iran?
I fear that if Dennis Ross succeeds in obtaining this position, he will be the Elliot Abrams of the Obama Administration, sabotaging the reasonable initiatives of other officials, as Abrams did in the Bush Administration. The Guardian recently reported that sources close to the Obama transition team say the incoming administration is prepared to abandon Bush's doctrine of isolating Hamas by establishing a channel to the group. This is the sort of realistic and reasonable initiative - one that could prevent war in the future - that Dennis Ross could easily thwart.
Indeed, U.S. diplomacy towards Iran under Dennis Ross would likely be akin to the "face bargaining" that anti-union employers in the U.S. often engage in (and which the Employee Free Choice Act would significantly curtail, at least with respect to a first contract, by providing the opportunity for binding arbitration.) After the "failure" of Dennis Ross's fake diplomacy, we'd be told that "diplomacy has been tried" and "now there's no option but military force."
In such a scenario, the opponents of military conflict with Iran might very well be in a much weaker position politically than they are today. The folks who voted for Obama, expecting him to pursue diplomacy with Iran, should insist on the real thing, not the fake version that Dennis Ross will likely supervise.
The appointment of Ross is not a done deal. Tuesday and Thursday, Hillary Clinton is scheduled to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for confirmation hearings as Secretary of State. It has been reported that there is opposition to Ross on the Obama transition team and that Hillary herself is not convinced Ross should be appointed to this position. If Senators point out the contradiction between Team Obama's promise of real diplomacy and Dennis Ross's advocacy of confrontation, it could tip the scales to the "real diplomacy" faction of Team Obama.
If your Senator is on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee - you can find the list here - you can use this link to urge them to ask Hillary a question about Dennis Ross. [Note that the committee list still formally includes Senator Biden, but he will not be participating in the hearing, for obvious reasons - the hearing will be chaired by Senator Kerry.]
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16 Comments so far
Show AllI see that Tony Blankley of the Washington Times is clamoring to re-instate the draft in order to invade Pakistan.
WTF is it with these draft-dodging cowards who want others to go off to fight? If anyone should be drafted, it should BEGIN with (and I'll use the term loosely) people like himself.
Tony Blankly has apparently written a new masterpiece in which he not only wants to bring back conscription but wants Americans to get "grittier", by which he probably means he wants us gringos to toughen up in the John Wayne, Dirty Harry mold. Have you ever seen Blankly? He's obese by any physician's standards, with a double chin like a puffed up toad and the bags under his eyes can be used to pack for a trip around the world. My one wish for Blankly and all these tough talking dime store killers on the far right is to be whisked off the streets and flown to Afghanistan, about fifty miles north of Kabul. Leave them on some road among the blackened ruins of exploded trucks and skeletons in ditches and let them try and walk back to the capitol.
The fat slob had gastric bypass. I like your idea though.
I suggest congress convene in Gaza
The draft - 1A status should be reserved for those over 50 with net worth over $1,000,000. Special A1 status for families of war contractors.
Joe
I had thought that the appointment of Ross was indeed a "done deal" but have followed the suggestion to call my Senator (Bill Nelson) to ask him to question Senator Clinton on the Dennis Ross matter. I hope others will do likewise, couldn't hurt!
All the so-called "Middle East Experts" Dennis Ross, Martin Indyk, Aaron David Miller, Daniel Kurtzer,
are Jews. Enough said. A huge mistake if any one of them is employed by Obama/Clinton.
But then the Obama/Clinton Ship of State will, in the future, founder of three reefs: Afghanistan, Iran, and Israel/Palestine.
All the so-called "Middle East Experts" Dennis Ross, Martin Indyk, Aaron David Miller, Daniel Kurtzer,
are Jews. Enough said. A huge mistake if any one of them is employed by Obama/Clinton.
But then the Obama/Clinton Ship of State will, in the future, founder on three reefs: Afghanistan, Iran, and Israel/Palestine.
You should understand what "diplomacy means to these "experts".
Sometimes, "diplomacy" means a powerful nation unilaterally issuing a ultimatum to a weak nation to completely relinquish their sovereignty of face military attack.
Or, if they are feeling really charitable, "diplomacy" means placing preconditions to negotiations that effectively demand complete capitulaton by the weak nation before the "negotiations" even start.
Then, they tell us, with a straight face and in all sincerity, that they tried "diplomacy" but the weak country refused our perfectly resonable peace offers.
The bombing then begins.
Then the subject weak nation is itself blamed for the death and destruction, because if they had simply done what we told them to do, there would be peace.
This is what the US has called "diplomacy" under both Democrat and Republican administration since at least Clinton's Yugoslavia bombngs, and probably well before that.
They can all go to hell.
---USAn
"And the U.S. already has two wars going (three, if you count the war on Gaza, which is being waged with U.S. weapons and approval, and which is doing as much political damage to the U.S. in the Muslim world as any war waged by the U.S. directly.)"
(four, if you count the U.S. attacks inside Pakistan separately from the war in Afghanistan)
-- ekaton aka d.k.shaw
Six... If you count the phony drug war in Colombia...
And the class war here at home...
And our destabilization of Somalia with our Ethiopian proxies plus a few of our bombs and covert forces. Oh forgot the black ops in Iran.
Thank you. I did not know much about Dennis Ross.
Joe
Pan
Israel first so that means other last , can`t be fair just or equal oh! NO
Only Jews can comment or criticize and administer to Jews ,we must support never question and allow our resources to be used as they see fit: of course vote at the UN as they request also . A nation of Eunuchs.
Whats wrong with equality in treatment , sends a message much admired by the world in days gone by.
A good friend to Jews is one who treats them as all other, with integrity and expect the same .
Not one is lesser not one is greater as regards to fairness and justice.
Justice and Liberty for All
People have to understand that there are Jewish folks and there are Jewish Likudniks. One estimate states that 76% of the US Jews voted for Obama and they have a fairly liberal outlook. That other group is very dangerous and do the lobbying for IAPAC and staff places such as the American Enterprise Institute,The Hudson Foundation, the Bi-Partisan Policy Center, Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy,and United Against Iran. A large number of these "mad dog Zionists" (an Israeli description, not mine)were brought in to staff the "Office of Special Plans" under Douglas Feith in the DOD. They helped create many of the lies that were forwarded to Dick Cheney to be used to hype the need for war with Iraq. Those "Mad Dog Zionists" are still out there and are more than willing to do anything to get a war going with Iran. Read Lt. Col Karen Kwiatkowski's article, "The Second Pentagon Papers" Salon.Com,and you get a better idea of how it all worked. Cheney tried to get us into a shooting war with Iran at least twice and failed. There apparently was a decision not to attack Iran by the US early in 2008 and then they decided it would be too much of a military, political, and economic problem/screw up to allow the Israelis to do so. Ehud Barak, Meir Dagen, and Gaby Ashkenazi came to DC in early summer of 2008 and were turned down again. It would be great if we could get General Peter Pace to write a book that gives the whole truth about how the White House was really ramping up for the attack against Iran. It appears that the Joint Chiefs of Staff developed a backbone and rebelled against the machinations to make war. The Likudniks most disgusting technique against their enemies is to call them ANTI-Semitic, but that gets sort of old and tired after a while.
I have listened to Dennis Ross speak several times on various programs on tv
and I have found him to be very level headed and not the chicken-hawk you protray him to be. May be I missed something here but he came across as a voice of reason.