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Reasons to Attack Iran
The last time US President Barack Obama met Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, it was obvious that the two men distrusted and despised each other. This time (5 March), their mutual dislike was better hidden, but the gulf between them was still as big, especially on the issue of Iran’s alleged desire for nuclear weapons.
There is something comic about two nuclear-armed countries (5,000-plus nuclear weapons for the US, around 200 for Israel) declaring that it is vital to prevent a third country from getting a few of the things too. Particularly when that third country, Iran, has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and still abides by it, while Israel has always refused to sign it. But never mind that.
What divides Obama and Netanyahu is a question of timing. Obama’s “red line” is the point at which Iran “possesses” a nuclear weapon, which would not arrive for a couple of years even if Iran actually intends to make one. (American and Israeli intelligence services concur that it is not working on one now.)
Netanyahu’s “red line” comes much sooner: whenever Iran has enough enriched uranium to build a bomb, whether it does so or not. It is, of course, quite legal for Iran to enrich uranium (which it says is solely for use in civilian nuclear reactors), while an unprovoked attack on Iran would be a criminal act under international law. But that didn’t stop former president George W Bush from invading Iraq, and it wouldn’t stop Obama now.
What worries Obama are three other things. First, the American public simply isn’t up for a third “war of choice” in ten years in the Middle East. As retired general Anthony Zinni, former commander of US military forces in the Middle East, warned three years ago: “If you liked Iraq and Afghanistan, you’ll love Iran.”
Secondly, this is presidential election year in the United States. If Israel attacks Iran, the oil price will soar and kill the economic recovery Obama is depending on for re-election. However, if the US fails to back Israel, American Jews will turn against him and kill his re-election chances anyway.
Thirdly, the attack would not destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment plants. Israel has been threatening to attack them for years, so the Iranians have buried them deep underground. Israeli and American hawks claim that an attack could delay Iran’s capability to enrich large quantities of uranium for three years, but Meir Dagan, former head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, thinks three months is optimistic.
Even if it were three years, Iran would be back to where it is now by 2015 – and an Iran that had been attacked by Israel and the United States would be determined to get nuclear weapons as fast as possible. As Gen Martin Dempsey, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said recently, Israeli attacks on Iran "would be destabilising and would not achieve their long-term objectives".
If Prime Minister Netanyahu and his fellow hawks truly believed that Iranian nuclear weapons would mean the extinction of the Jewish state, then their wish to attack Iran would be defensible, but they don’t. That’s just for public consumption. What’s actually at stake here is not the survival of Israel, just the preservation of the huge strategic advantage Israel enjoys as the sole nuclear weapons state in the Middle East.
Ehud Barak, Israel’s defence minister, let the cat out of the bag in a recent interview with Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman for the New York Times Magazine. “From our point of view, a nuclear state offers an entirely different kind of protection to its proxies. Imagine if we enter another military confrontation with Hezbollah, (and a) nuclear Iran announces that an attack on Hezbollah is tantamount to an attack on Iran. We would not necessarily give up on it, but it would definitely restrict our range of operations.”
Big deal. Israel lost its last military confrontation with Hezbollah in 2006 even WITH a monopoly of nuclear weapons, but it suffered no lasting harm as a result. If Israel is not facing an existential threat, but just the potential loss of some strategic leverage, then launching an illegal war of aggression against Iran makes no sense at all.
But there is also a deeper motive. Netanyahu and his allies really think that an attack on Iran would bring the Islamic regime down. As Barak told Bergman: “An Iranian bomb would ensure the survival of the current regime, which otherwise would not make it to its 40th anniversary in light of the admiration that the young generation in Iran has displayed for the West. With a bomb, it would be very hard to budge the administration.”
So what Barak and his fellow hawk Netanyahu are actually demanding is American support for an attack whose real aim is to bring down the Iranian regime. The thinking is delusional: the notion that the Iranian regime will collapse unless it gets the bomb is held by both Israeli and American hawks, but there is no concrete reason to believe it.
As Meir Dagan said in a lecture at Tel Aviv University recently, “The fact that someone has been elected doesn’t mean that he is smart.”
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79 Comments so far
Show AllA possible war with Iran has nothing to do with nukes and everything to do with banking and oil. And it's been pretty effective in pushing the price of oil up. It's good for the GDP, since our GDP is mainly based on Wall St. speculation these days. Don't hear anything about Israel facing austerity cuts now do we?
http://www.infowars.com/iran-gold-and-oil-the-next-banksters-war/
If we were really worried about nuclear proliferation we wouldn't be aiding Saudia Arabia in gaining it would we? They are arab, muslim and were the hijackers on 09/11.
How's that "rebel" democracy in Libya working out? Don't hear much about it anymore do we?
I see... the Bush administration lied about anything and everything, and yet you still believe the fiction of Arab hijackers? 9/11 was an inside job, friend. The Twin Towers we blown up, Building 7 was too. There was no plane at the Pentagon, and the hole in Shanksville was just that, but there WAS plane wreckage spread out for miles across the Pennsylvania countryside. The only actual planes hitting buildings that day were the cartoon ones shown on TV, but enough Americans will believe whatever they see on the boob-tube that such cartoons and CGI fakery are all the "proof" they need. The numerous US military war games going on that day provided great cover for what rogue elements in the Pentagon and Langley were responsible for, yet another in a long history of US false-flag operations. Arabs, Muslims, Persians... they had nothing to do with it except to be the designated patsies.
"The real threat to U.S. military power is nuclear proliferation, because if every little country has nuclear weapons it becomes very tricky for the United States to engage in military action."
(Immanuel Wallerstein)
"The people will believe what the media tells them they believe."
(George Orwell)
It being an inside job isn't incongruent with Saudi hijackers flying the planes into the towers.
That still presumes planes and hijackers, facts not in evidence.
Really? What hit the towers then? Really big pigeons?
If I had to guess, I would say normal sized cruise missiles, which can be painted to look very much like airliners, will appear to be such to most observers, and would fully penetrate the buildings, not crush or accordion as an aluminum passenger aircraft would. There was some footage from a helicopter that day in which could be seen a disturbance in the air (later covered over by a cartoon blob) that is entirely within keeping of such a weapon. The use of a missile hitting one of the Towers was part of the many war game exercises going on that day. A close look at the damage as it was occurring reveals that the silhouette of aircraft wings developed with what very much appears to be shaped charges, complete with white smoke and dripping molten metal. What must be kept in mind, I believe, first and foremost, is that 9/11 was an act of deception, an experiment, if you will, to test the effectiveness of television images and planted stories on convincing a gullible public that images on television reflected actual events to provide a causis belli for a war for Middle East oil and profits for the war economy. An examination of the television images from stationary cameras that morning will reveal that they are all faked in one way or another (and were exactly the same images were used, re-cropped or re-sized, by all the major networks, who had, it should be remembered, no live feeds that day), with various tell-tale glitches and errors, many of them quite obvious (the "nose out" image and the fade to black, the moving bridge, the obvious matte layering, grey boxing, the 'top off" glitches, to name but a few).
LOL
Stop smoking meth.
How can a CD reader like FRTothus still believe the stunning bullshit about 9/11 being an inside job is beyond all comprehension. And who exactly would mastermind such a job? The certified morons in our political and military establishment? Morons don't mastermind. Mr. FRTothus, take a hike, go fishing or something but don't make a total fool of yourself.
Kanassatego inquires : "And who exactly would mastermind such a job?" A very good question to ask as a reasonable and intelligent person would realize that a very tall bearded man living in a cave thousands of miles away in a country called Afghanistan would hardly be in a position to pull off what occurred on September 11, 2001 as not one but four airplanes were hijacked on that day. How exactly bin Laden was able to do this remains extremely unclear especially since Navy SEALs decided to conveniently assassinate bin Laden [assuming, that is, that that person whom the SEALs had killed was actually Osama bin Laden] which then means that bin Laden would never be able to testify in a court of law concerning what he had allegedly masterminded on 9/11/01.
As to be expected, Kanassatego never wonders how bin Laden could have known that on the very day that those attacks were to occur that about a half dozen military exercises were going to take place when those attacks would be carried out which would make tracking down and overtaking those hijacked planes extremely difficult and which, in what should have been a surprise to absolutely no one, is exactly what happened.
But then to raise these obvious points creates the risk of being labeled, according to Kanassatego, a "total fool". I think not as, to borrow from his words, it "is beyond all comprehension" how anyone could possibly believe the Official Fairy Tale regarding the mysterious events that had occurred on September 11, 2001.
Ha, let it be known that Erroll is also a conspiracy nut. Well, any more here on CD? Just do it guys: come out of the woodwork. Let the good times roll!
I cannot deal with viral, malignant nonsense any more, so I will let Editor of CounterPunch do the job for me this time:
"You trip over one fundamental idiocy of the 9/11 conspiracy nuts — – the ones who say Bush and Cheney masterminded the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon — in the first paragraph of the opening page of the book by one of their high priests, David Ray Griffin, The New Pearl Harbor. “In many respects,” Griffin writes, “the strongest evidence provided by critics of the official account involves the events of 9/11 itself… In light of standard procedures for dealing with hijacked airplanes… not one of these planes should have reached its target, let alone all three of them.” The operative word here is “should”. One characteristic of the nuts is that they have a devout, albeit preposterous belief in American efficiency, thus many of them start with the racist premise that “Arabs in caves” weren’t capable of the mission. They believe that military systems work the way Pentagon press flacks and aerospace salesmen say they should work. They believe that at 8.14 am, when AA flight 11 switched off its radio and transponder, an FAA flight controller should have called the National Military Command center and NORAD. They believe, citing reverently (this is from high priest Griffin) “the US Air Force’s own website”, that an F-15 could have intercepted AA flight 11 “by 8.24, and certainly no later than 8.30”.
Kanassatego
You did an excellent job of avoiding the question of how bin Laden was supposed to have masterminded these attacks while living in a cave thousands of miles away in Afghanistan while ignoring the fact that the people who would have been most likely the ones who could have carried out those attacks were high ranking Bush officials along with some members of the military establishment. So much for believing that the idea of Questioning Authority is still alive and well in the 21st century. Your motto seems to be:when in doubt, place the blame on those dirty Arabs.
Regarding left gatekeepers such as Alexander Cockburn, David Ray Griffin effectively and persuasively swats away their claims in his most well written book:
Debunking 9/11 Debunking: An Answer to Popular Mechanics and Other Defenders of the Official Conspiracy Theory
People conspire. Corporations conspire. Governments conspire. They always have. For example, there is no doubt that SOME PEOPLE conspired to down those buildings on 9/11. The question is, - who.
Some conspiracy theories are plausible, and some are implausible. The officially sanction conspiracy theory, where Bin Laden was fingered during the first half hour, and where the BBC announced the fall of WTC7 before it actually fell is IMPLAUSIBLE. It has been shown to have serious holes. This conspiracy theory that nut cases like yourself are pushing does not hold water, and is rejected by most thinking people.
One characteristic of 9/11 conspiracy nuts such as yourself is that they automatically believe what they are told by the media and imagine that the government is incapable of conspiring, whereas in fact, the government has been caught red handed before.
The Truther phenomenon is quite fascinating. Some kind of group hysteria. Some sort of tribal, self-reinforcing hypnosis. One really dim Democratic partisan, infused with an entirely justified outrage at Bush/Cheney, says out loud, "I think the gummint did it." Another similarly outraged dimwit hears that, agrees, and decides something factual -- rather than ridiculous -- has been stated. Rinse and repeat and you have the "Truther" insanity.
"...a reasonable and intelligent person would realize that a very tall bearded man living in a cave thousands of miles away in a country called Afghanistan would hardly be in a position to pull off what occurred on September 11, 2001."
What does "very tall" or "bearded" have to do with it? Answer: When you don't have facts and are mentally incompetent anyway, you just flap your mouth and pretend that it means something.
What does "living in a cave" have to do with it? Dipstick translation: "Only backward, primitive people live in caves, and backward people are ineffective." Reality-based analysis: Stone age people living in caves were backward. A very wealthy, strategically-talented, al-Quaida leader and US-trained civil engineer, with a well-funded global network, headquartered in one of many remote and undisclosed locations, with communication by sat phone/internet/courier, would have been comprehensively qualified and capable of carrying out the 911 attacks (which he did). Add in the Bush/Cheney criminally-negligent indifference, and the "puzzle" -- for "a reasonable and intelligent person", anyway -- is solved. Also: Bin Laden wasn't living in a cave before the attacks, and, afterward resided in Abbotabad, Pakistan. So maybe it's time to retire the "primitive cave-dweller, thousands of miles away in Afghanistan" baloney.
Talking with a Truther is like barking back at your dog and pretending you're having a conversation.
The buildings were exploded.
That's proven. It is scientifically irrefutable. If you disagree, please scientifically refute it. I don't believe you will be able to do so.
Whether you or I or the man in the moon believes it or disbelieves it doesn't change reality.
I used to believe the buildings fell down. I thought it highly unlikely and was suspicious, but had not seen the videos which are higher quality - I had only seen, like most of us had, the selected clips the MSM showed me- mostly way back in 2001 and 2002- and if no one has told you this yet, (no one had told me) the MSM left out the reality of 9/11 by clever selection and editing of the video clips publicly aired. The result was to create an almost believable, or a barely believable, or an almost barely believable scenario, which was then repeatedly hammered into the minds of Americans, until it was well absorbed.
However, things have changed since then, behind the scenes. This is mostly due to the efforts of 9/11 survivors and witnesses, 9/11 families, and the 9/11 truth movement, which sought for videos and other data to be released through FOIA.
It is extremely valuable, and is now possible, to make one's own choices, and watch the original network and other videos that were kept from us for years, in good enough video quality. The official "collapse" story soon is shown to be a completely unsustainable set of falsehoods.
Try it and you will see what I mean.
The analyses made by AE911 Truth, and available for free viewing, are trustworthy, factual, verifiable, meticulous, and in general extremely well done. I recommend them to doubters.
I want to mention something else here. 9/11 truth is not a joke. When people ridicule it or insult it they don't do anything to the truth movement, except fail to help it. But they reveal attitudes in themselves, attitudes which are almost without exception based on prejudice or misinformation rather than fact.
9/11 truth is not a joke, but something extremely important, and not at all frivolous or ridiculous but deeply serious. It is not something that can be, or ever should be, laughed off or ridiculed as the fantasy of hippies or children or madmen or some other perceived "lesser" form of life, as has been the propaganda program to deal with the truth movement for a decade.
Architects, pilots- both military and civilian- structural engineers, demolitions workers, construction workers, experienced steelworkers or concrete workers, firefighters and other emergency workers and eye-witnesses are a bit harder to discredit.
Evidence showed me the buildings were, without a doubt, exploded.
I don't say who did it. But explosives brought down the two towers and also building 7, and that's just a fact.
The mass media will not cover it.
People who disbelieve it have just not studied the destruction of the World Trade Center. Not only were explosives used but, on the twin towers, a huge amount, far more than was needed to just bring down the structures, was obviously used, as the pulverization of concrete, steel, and everything else, including human bodies, demonstrates.
Honestly, to believe that the WTC was brought down without explosives is as scientific as believing that the earth is flat or that water is not wet or that fire is never hot.
It is absurd in light of the plethora of evidence to the contrary.
Sorry, but it is true. I am not trying to start an argument, only to be informative.
No explanation which is compatible with known laws of falling bodies, of the known strength of materials, and other factors, has yet been offered by any entity, governmental or not, except for the 9/11 truth movement, which has not only offered explanation, but has shown proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and yet, prejudice and ignorance and failure to investigate the matter prevent millions of Americans from understanding this. Please don't be one of them.
There are many factual matters that make the standard story impossible to believe. The standard story is that the impact of the planes, plus their burning kerosene fuel (WTC#7 burning diesel fuel), plus gravity caused the three WTC buildings to fall down at free-fall speed, into their own foundations. 1) Where did the molten structural steel in the wreckage of all 3 buildings come from, when the burning fuels and burning furniture cannot make a fire hot enough to melt structural steel? 2) Considering that no structural steel building had ever fallen down like that except by demolition, how could the owners, the mayor, and the BBC have known the WTC#7 would fall down before it did, though not hit by an airplane? 3) If the standard story is true, then why has there not been a complete re-thinking of structural engineering and of building codes, now that we "see" that conventional fires as at WTC#7 can cause a building to completely collapse in seconds? In fact, structural steel buildings simply do not fall down as did the WTC buildings on 9-11, except by demolition. At Hiroshima, the structural steel skeletons stood intact after the extreme force and extreme heat of a nuclear bomb. And the standard story wants us to believe that a conventional fire in WTC#7 could cause it to fall down, with the building owner, the mayor of NYC, and BBC all saying that it would fall down before it did. Clearly, someone put demolitions in those buildings, and some authorities knew that. The major consequence of the standard story is that the USA and NATO felt compelled to attack, invade, and occupy Afghanistan, and kill Afghan people in their own homes, in their own villages. No Afghans were involved in the 9-11 events, certainly could not have put the demolitions in the 3 WTC buildings, and the Taliban government several times offered to extradite bin Laden. President Bush and his advisers wanted war, wanted 2 or 3 wars. And we have got them, using the demolition of the WTC buildings as the justification. We have also got the destruction of rule-of-law and Constitutional government in the USA, as well as the destruction of the US economy. All because we believe the standard story, which obviously cannot be a correct account of what happened on 9-11 in NY City.
Cargo cult group-hypnosis. Denial of first-person-witnessed reality. Echo chamber reinforced. Fascinating.
Boy, you sure can type! Now if only you could think.
"...please scientifically refute it."
My dog understands reality, but he can't understand English much beyond "walk" or "cookie", so I don't try to teach him physics. By comparison, you understand English, but don't understand reality (that is, you're insane -- at least regarding 911), so, unless you want to pay me ten grand in tuition, I'm also not going to try to teach **YOU** physics.
Here, have a cookie.
The only stunning bullshit with regard to 9/11 I've seen is the official conspiracy theory, and the fools are those that still believe it and defend it.
Obama is thinking after the election is better... then he can do it with worrying about the $8 a gallon gasoline (the only moral red line for the Amerikan public) -- or leave it to Mitt.
“The fact that someone has been elected doesn’t mean that he is smart.”
But it does confirm that whoever elects these morons is pretty stupid.
Obama is obviously smart.
What he isn't, is wise or moral.
Ahhh, at last, intelligent life emerges from the primordial Truther sludge.
One way or another, USrael WILL attack Iran - either before the election in November, or after. I guarantee it. After all these threats, and positioning so much of our Navy/Armed forces around Iran lately, we aren't going to just "turn it off." As Nixon said, "It's very hard to get the toothpaste back into the tube once it is out."
A very good article that spells out the facts very succinctly. What a shame our MSM can't produce a piece like this, instead of regurgitating official Zionist propoganda and outright lies.
How we going to pay for it? It's not going to be cheap or short and it's not going to be another Libya? We've seen this saber rattling before and it was turned off. This is not irreversible and Iran is not Libya. They're smart. They aren't going to be goaded into doing something that would incite a war. Israel and the US are going to have to cross the line first. And ask yourself why would we want to do that?
Israel is weak militarily and economically. Israel depends almost completely on handouts from the U.S. to survive. Those handouts include BILLIONS in foreign aid, Billions in Military aid (including "sales" of military hardware one year, the bill for which our congress nullifies during some mid-night session attended by few, the next year and which goes unreported), a free trade zone that allows unlimited tariff-free importation to the U.S. for Israeli goods, a special clause in the tax laws that allows Americans to deduct from their U.S. income taxes, any donations to ISRAELI charities (!), numerous subsidies to Israeli reasearch and munitions companies to keep them alive and fund the Israeli M.I.C. infrastructure, not to mention the massive transfer of wealth from rich American Jews and wealthy fundamentalist Christian churches every year to "the Holy Land". You get the picture. The Israelis are international mendicants! (ie- beggars!)
The reason all of this goes on is because, plain and simple, the Israelis, along with American Jews, have figured out how to (1) get money from our corrupt Congress persons (large amounts) delivered to Israel (in the Billions), of which (2) a small amount (in the Millions) is recycled to those same bought and paid for Congress persons. Its a scam, plain and simple, and its been going on for years! Presidential candidates are in on the swag too. The Israelis know that a million or two prudently placed with the correct Super-Pac can reap rewards in the billions when the "right" president takes office!
,br>
Its a dirty, rotten, corrupt system. We need to end it. The way we can end it, not just to kick out the Israelis, but all the other DOMESTIC corporations doing the same thing, is to PUBLICLY FINANCE ELECTIONS, and outlaw private funding of politicians.
We can do this! We can overthrow the plutocrats. The people, united, will NEVER be defeated!
The WMD thing that you are pushing is a lie. Stop pretending that this is about Israel's security. Unlike Israel, Iran has not attacked nor threatened to attack any country. Unlike Israel it not bristling with modern weapons and with its out of date weaponry is not a threat to any country. As with Iraq and Libya, the stated reasons for this war are merely a raft of lies to cover for imperial ambitions.
And both the American and Israeli intelligence services have announced that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program.
I seem to recall that the intelligence services expressed a good deal of doubt about the Iraqi WMD program as well. (as in, doubt that the claims of the warmongers were remotely accurate) Damn shame that the only message the leaders listen to is the ones they want to hear.
Obama has promised the Israelis bunker busting bombs and the aircraft to deliver them IF they simply wait until after the Election.
So Obama's red line is actually November 6th......... Not the dribble pushed by the author.
Why not report the truth?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/obama-promises-bunker-busters-israel-if-netanyahu-delays-iran-invasion-until-after-us-elections
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2012/02/20120307_Iran.png
The image is a map of the middle east showing the numerous USA military bases surrounding Iran.
It's all about the Oilybombers reelection -
i still hold to the notion that most amerikans don't give a shit about israel one way or the other
the jews control hollywood:
"I have never been so upset by a poll in my life. Only 22% of Americans now believe "the movie and television industries are pretty much run by Jews," down from nearly 50% in 1964. The Anti-Defamation League, which released the poll results last month, sees in these numbers a victory against stereotyping. Actually, it just shows how dumb America has gotten. Jews totally run Hollywood."
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-stein19-2008dec19,0,4676183.column
ariel sharon:
" Peres warned Sharon that refusing to heed incessant American requests for a cease-fire with the Palestinians would endanger Israeli interests and "turn the US against us. "Sharon reportedly yelled at Peres, saying "don't worry about American pressure, we the Jewish people control America.""
http://mediamonitors.net/khodr49.html
"The Israelis control the policy in the congress and the senate."
-- Senator Fullbright, Chair of Senate Foreign Relations Committee: 10/07/1973 on CBS' "Face the Nation".
"I am aware how almost impossible it is in this country to carry out a foreign policy [in the Middle East] not approved by the Jews..... terrific control the Jews have over the news media and the barrage the Jews have built up on congressmen .... I am very much concerned over the fact that the Jewish influence here is completely dominating the scene and making it almost impossible to get congress to do anything they don't approve of. The Israeli embassy is practically dictating to the congress through influential Jewish people in the country"
-----Sec. of State John Foster Dulles quoted on p.99 of Fallen Pillars by Donald Neff
i could go on
the jews have got the congress to wage war on their behalf killing our kids, spending our money, an destroying our economy
they lend us non-existent money to do so and charge us interest on it
meanwhile they sit back and get their welfare check from the us taxpayer on top of that estimated to be at a rate of $55,000.00/yr per person
we should be so lucky
but this is a dangerous game and as we have seen in the past - it leads to pogroms and purges
live by the sword - die by the sword
amerikans got a lot to regret about the state of the country but this is an issue that should bring shame on every citizen who is taxed against their will to support this non-democratic, racist genocidal country
obummer says he's got israel's back
to bad he aint concerned about ours
No austerity cuts in Israel are there? Like Goldman Sachs they appear "too big" to fail. And we'll all pay for their prosperity. Obama has their back, sides and front.
here in the good ship lollipop our owners we have no health care but in israel they have single payer - and we are i guess the payer
"Health care in Israel is universal and participation in a medical insurance plan is compulsory. Health care coverage is administered by a small number of organizations, with funding from the government. All Israeli citizens are entitled to the same Uniform Benefits Package, regardless of which organization they are a member of, and treatment under this package is funded for all citizens regardless of their financial means. Generally, health care in Israel is of high-quality and is delivered in an efficient and effective manner. Partly as a result of this, at an overall 82 years, Israelis enjoy the fourth-longest life expectancy in the world as of 2010."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_Israel
6.7% unemployment in Israel, while in the US we don't really know the rate because we don't count the millions who have given up or the millions who can get only part time work.
At least they dont give your money to for-profit private insurers. Now that WOULD be a waste of our money for the benefit of the few.
Dyer has found his voice since the end of the cold war. People call Israel the 51st state of the U.S., but I suspect the U.S. is the second state of Israel. I like the way he makes it all sound like a great game of chicken, with thousands of lives hanging in the balance, played by über-wealthy crazy people. war = $$$
Follow the money. This has nothing to do with nukes or religion and everything to do with banking and oil. The only security Israel is worried about is their financial security. And that's more secure than the US's.
http://www.infowars.com/iran-gold-and-oil-the-next-banksters-war
Israel has universal health care. They also have state funded education. They spend 10% on education (at least for Jews). In fact most of their infrastructure like energy, transportation and communications is nationalized. Yet they are not looking at austerity cuts or privatization?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_Israel
More important than their control of Hollywood, is the fact that they control the press. Today in the US there are only about six sources for news. And we all know who own and control them.
Good points, but Israel's long term financial security has everything to do with nukes and religion, as well as banking and oil. Despite Nutballyahoo's manipulative fixation on Iran's theoretical nuclear capacity, nukes are central to this whole scenario. Israel has over 200 of them, the US has untold thousands, and Iran isn't supposed to acquire even one. Double standards literally define US/Israeli foreign policy. Without them, neither state would HAVE a foreign policy.
And behind Israel's scare tactic of a nuclearized Iran wiping Israel off the map is the deeper background of the convenient shibboleth that Iran hates the Jews and Judaism. Nitwityahoo is desperate to get Obama to believe that Israel is being singled out by Iran because of religious persecution. It's important to get the US power structure to perceive Iran as neo-Nazis hellbent on carrying out Hitler's Final Solution. So the religious angle is equally central to this whole phantasmagoria.
Without these psychological components working at full capacity, Israel can't achieve that coveted financial security and maintain its status as economic hegemon in the Middle East.
Interesting facts some of which were used against Iraq in the criminal rush to undo that nation's nationalized health care and oil industry through forced privatization. And not to mention the fact that we KNEW--otherwise we would NOT have attacked Iraq--that there were NO WMDs in Iraq but Israel has plenty, smack in the center of the Middle East.
"whose real aim is to bring down the Iranian regime."
BINGO!!! The Nuke issue is BS. Iran was slated to be overthrown a long time ago. This is all part of the plan.
The Empire moves on......
And once Iran is taken care of the next target will be Venezuela. It's not enough for us to speak out against going to war with Iran. We have to also speak out against the creating of the propaganda narrative to vilify Venezuela that has been going on for years.
Yep, can't have that socialist giving desperate folks in the USA any ideas.
Let's hope Bibi isn't saying, "We must nuke them to see they don't get nukes."
Yes but also bombing the nuclear sites will release much contamination.
Interesting that you do not list the Nordic countries or the social democracies in Western Europe. Perhaps that "truth" does not fit in with your perception of "honesty".
I would suggest that most people come to the US because the US has made life in their own countries impossible, and after spending all that they had to get over here, likely in the hope that at least here they will not be bombed or targeted by robot missiles, believing the fiction that the US is some kind of paradise, they do not have anything left with which to return home. Odd that there are not many people clamoring to get here from the social democracies Western Europe. As far as the US being in better shape than the rest of the world, you talk with all the certainty of ignorance, limiting your comparisons to one or another desperately impoverished third world country, but tellingly not to those first world countries (or even the second-world countries that have a more equal distribution of wealth and far greater democracy than here) that give the lie to your criticisms. You're interested in truth? How about these truths: Most of the world is capitalist, and most of the people in the world are poor. Rich countries do not go to poor countries to make money. These third world countries are rich, it is the people that are poor, and they are kept that way because it serves the rich to keep it that way.
You speak of bankruptcies of US cities and talk of them borrowing money that they couldn't pay back, and yet you ignore the fact that every dollar issued is borrowed, and due with interest to the FED, preferring instead to blame the victims of this fraudulent Ponzi scheme for mendacity for which they are entirely blameless.
True, most people in the US are not as badly off as in those in the third world, so long the victims of imperial theft, but to allege that the US is some beacon of justice and that the fascists occupying our highest offices uphold human rights or abide by the rule of law is just absurd, and ignores those living here (in the supposed world's richest country) in conditions that rival the poorest places on earth. One does not need to travel to some South American or Middle Eastern country to see what "jail" really means, what torture is, what a lawless police-state, official corruption, and religious (including the "free-market" variety) fundamentalism look like. Take off your red-white-and-blue blinders, friend. Being not as bad as the worst is hardly a noteworthy achievement.
>>I would suggest that most people come to the US because the US has made life in their own countries impossible, and after spending all that they had to get over here, likely in the hope that at least here they will not be bombed or targeted by robot missiles, believing the fiction that the US is some kind of paradise, they do not have anything left with which to return home
Keep in mind that the country called LIBYA had a larger population per capita of migrants illegal and otherwise then did the United States of America. People from all over Sub Saharan Africa migrated to Libya.
People also fled Iraq by the millions and went into Syria.
They went there not because those were "The greatest cpountries in the world". they went there because the wealth jobs and security in those countries was better then what they left behind.
I would not want to live in Syria.
Nor would I want to live in the USA.
>>Think we are mired in poverty? Think we have poor that are being trodden on? Try visiting a country with real poverty. Try getting by on $4 a day, if you can find work. The Helot's of Greece are still endemic around the world, but you will find few in America.
47 million Americans live in poverty,
1.5 MILLION adult americans have incomes of less then 2 dollars per day. It is only social programs like FOOD stamps that keep these people alive yet YOU claim there too much spending on Social programs.
So how is it Americans are so much better off ?
Why is it you insist on comparing yourself to the worst countries in the world? As long as there someone worse things can not be bad? This seems to be a uniquely American trait which explains the popularity of shows like "Cops" where people living pay cheque to paycheque swilling back beers can pat themselves on the back because they are not as bad off as that idiot being arrested.
As to being at "the bottom of the heap". There a great difference between Countries like Colombia and ones like the United States of America.
Columbia is not dropping bombs on people in Iraq and Pakistan and Somalia and Libya . Columbia is not arming drug lords in Mexico. Columbia is not toppling Governmnets in Chile and in Indonesia. Columbia is not arming thugs in Syria and Bahrain. Columbia is not assassinating people in Yemen or in Brazil or in Canada. Columbia is not kidnapping people off the streets in Germany and sending them to be tortured. Colombia is not dropping cluster munitions on people in Laos and in Yemen.Colombia is not developing Biological weapons that can destroy the earths population.
Colombia does not have the death penalty nor does it sentence children to the death penalty. Columbia does not have a rate of incarceration anywhere near what there is in the United States of America.
So you tell me why the USA is "better" then a Colombia.? Is it because the USA has more "Money"?
Time for you to read Ward Churchill's (Cherokee/Creek) book, A Little Matter of Genocide and Lerone Bennett, Jr's book, Before The Mayflower and lastly, Black Rage by William H. Grier & Price M. Cobbs then get back to us.
Cuz Amurika doesn't engage in "real" racism ... and Amurika doesn't commit "real" genocide. Only those less moralistic brown, black, and yellow skinned types do that!
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I mean .. alright, so maybe it's true that Amurika was founded on the great western traditions of slavery, domination, and subjugation ... but that's ancient history now. Who cares that the very foundation and prosperity of this country can be traced back to slavery and genocide? Not me, and not my friend lanista here! Because we know better ... we kno that Amurikans don't commit "real" genocide.
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You know, more recently it wouldn't have been necessary for us Amurikans to kill millions of people in Southeast Asia if they didn't fight back! It's true that we bombed their countries to a pulp ... dropped more ordinance on them than was dropped on Europe in WWII. We killed them by the millions, and yeah we sprayed them with chemical poisons too, but extreme measures were necessary. We were trying to save them! If only they didn't fight back. That wasn't "real' genocide.
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And forget all about those countries in Latin Murika, and Indonesia (where Obama's mother worked for the CIA collectting the names of suspected leftists who were soon liquidated) and in the Middle East where the CIA would engineer coup d'etats and hand the government over to the military, the rich elites, and the chicago boys or the berkley mafia ... Yeah, ok ... hundreds of thousands (more like millions probably) were brutally slaughtered in those affairs. But hey! Be fair, that's not totally on us cuz Amurikans don't commit "real" genocide after all. And anyway is it genocide if you're just trying to make a buck? What have you blame Amurika first'ers got against making a profit?!? You Stalnist lovin liberty hatin chairman Mao a'worshippin atheist wackadoos!
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And furthermore, when the amurikan sponsored economic sanctions in Iraq killed something like half a million children under the age of 5 during the 1990s .. that wasn't genocide ether. I don't care that two UN assistant secretary generals resigned over the sanctions and referred to them as "genocide." It wasn't a "real" genocide cuz Amurikans don't do that! And anyway we were trying to save them! Shouldn't the Iraqi children under the age of 5 have to accept some personal responsibility? Why didnt they show any damn intestinal fortitude? And as far as the hundreds of thousands more Iraqi's that died in Gulf War II ... well it's all very sad but we were just trying to help them out, once again. Not a "real" genocide.
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So people might say ... "Amurika's not so great. Look at all the people you put in jail. You incarcerate more people than anywhere else on the planet." But the truth is that most of them are illiterate poors who weren't doing anything useful anyway .. so they deserve it. That's not proof that Amurika is bad or racist. So there's some more truth for you!
More idiocy from Thomas More / Henry 8 / mightymite / prometheus.
That racism exists in other places does not disprove the assertion that it exists in America. That genocide has been committed in other places, does not disprove the assertion that America committed / commits genocide.
"you want to see a real "War On Women" go to the Middle East or many parts of the Far East for that matter. Try pushing "women's right's" in China, India or Iran or Egypt or Siri Lanka or many other countries.
Try getting some "gay rights" in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Indonesia, Japan, etc and see how far you get, if you live that long."
Given your idiotic shit tossing against the wall here, I suspect that you've never been to single one of these countries.
"Try getting into a court in many countries including some South American countries, you'll just think you see injustice here. Get thrown in jails outside our country and you will see what "jail" really means. Try asserting your "rights" in a place that no longer has policemen as so many keep advocating. Try telling that soldier you have "rights""
You mean the soldiers at Guantanamo? Bagram? Or how about the policemen who beat and shoot protesters?
"Think we are mired in poverty? Think we have poor that are being trodden on? Try visiting a country with real poverty. Try getting by on $4 a day, if you can find work. The Helot's of Greece are still endemic around the world, but you will find few in America."
LOL. Try looking at any measure of wealth and income inequality.
"we have an educational system in decay because the people involved in it care far more about themselves and their personal ideologies and theories than educating our children."
No the educational system is in decay because too much money is being given to the military pigs at the trough, like you.
"Our society is a mess because somehow, someone imagined you could dictate results or that people some how had a "right" not to have their feelings hurt."
Yet more hypocrisy. On another thread, you whined and moaned about religious Christians and their right to be given special treatment. Given that you do not think hurting people's feelings is a problem why should the feelings of religious Christians not be trampled all over? Oh wait, let met guess, YOU have a right to hurt the feelings of others, while not having your own feelings hurt.
"They are where they are because somehow they believed you could borrow money that you couldn't pay back and somehow, someone in the future would figure it out. Well folks, we have dissipated the largesse the Greatest Generation graciously provided us with and we are all going to have to grow up and make hard, honest decisions. And we are in better shape than the rest of the world, THAT is frightening"
Uhh, the Greatest Generation was very much a EVIL Big Government Statist generation, supporting all manner of EVIL Big Government laws and acts.
"d I mean from the Left as well as the Right. If we don't get honest in our discussions we will all go down the tubes. Rant over, flame away, but you just got the truth."
No, just more right wing lies.
You're saying we should ignore that bad things are happening in America because these things are worse in other countries, many of which find themselves in that situation because of the American empire's influence, interventions and invasions through the years
Direct democracy