Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 6 Editor's Choice: 2
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"War for Oil"
[Read the article: Is the "Israel lobby" distorting America's Mideast policies?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I guess that Walt+Mearsheimer made a legal faux pas by claiming "no evidence" of "war for oil" in Iraq. Doubtless, there is some such evidence, though most of that "counter-spin" looks like Marxist cant and rant.
Still, if one weighs whatever authentic and original evidence there is, I think that one will find that the NeoCons and TheoCons -- not so much an Israeli as just an Evangelical/ Likudniki Lobby -- in GW Bush's camp decisively pushed for the war in Iraq. Sure, they offered what was left of the GWH Bush loyalists the easy prospect of more Anglo-American oil concessions and some sort of "hold harmless" protection for their patrons.
They had, after all, flown the Saudi Shoppers out of the county after September 11, had they not? That was not PERLE move, surely. Such self-serving WASPish graciousness, evenhandedness, and faux realism, let's call it, would be part of the CHENEY/RUMSFELD dream of a quick and cheap victory -- more Junker foolishness than Zionist cunning.
All I can say from down here in the Oil Patch -- Houston -- is that neither ex pat Texans "Over There" or ex pat Middle Easterners here in town (Israeli or Arab) have shown much enthusiasm over the prospect or the reality of this war regardless of how it has seemed to be going.
Frankly, this war came from inside the Beltway, not from the Oil Patch. It seems to me like an Imperialism of Idiots (NeoCons, TheoCons, and Tommy FRANKS) that has trumped both the old-time Jewish and, for that matter, Oil or even Defense Lobbies. At best, they were just along for what they figured would be a romp.
::JRBehrman
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Where are the Democrats?
[Read the article: The neocons' next war]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sadly, Democrats, well, DLC/DCCC "Hillarycrats", are unwilling to challenge AIPAC/JINSA/LIKUD solidarity, hence, the Neo-Cons. Only the BUSH-I Wasps are up to this challenge, though, likely, because the Saudi's pay them, too.
Ironically, the LIKUD/KADIMA have failed in Israel. The "Old Guard", Labor and the Army, -- not the Royal Israeli Navy or the Israeli-American Air Force -- have to redeem the failure of HALUTZ and his Northern Command. They must now march into South Lebanon, hold ground, and force what will likely be European intervention. Hizbu'llah has won a strategic victory, even if the IDF can grind them down eventually with unprecedented difficulty and casualties.
Not just the "Clean Break", but "Eretz Israel" is dead unless the Neo-Cons can push this all the way to nuclear war -- their Wagner/Jabotinski/Gibson denoument.
Secy PAULSON can kiss his "Strong Dollar" ass goodby.
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Political Failure and Rebuilding
[Read the article: The Iraq war is lost]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Of course, the GOP has successfully implemented a stab-in-the-back theory of Vietnam war and will do so again. Both wars have been pursued on a "bi-partisan" basis featuring "cringing liberals" on the left, "chickenhawks" on the right, and self-serving "centrists" in between.
Did the Democratic Congessional Leadership -- the only leadership the party actually has -- ever describe the Vietnam War as lost, assign blame, learn lessons, and implement reforms? No! That would take lawmaker-veterans, not "veteran law-makers".
No. They relied exclusively on bi-partisan compromises and moderate Republican executives to make quiet, low-cost, changes in overt or covert budgets -- while preserving the Treaty of Miami, increasing rank-inflation, and continuing to marginalize the US constitution in all matters military.
Not a disciplined party, Democrats have now trotted along -- camp followers -- behind the NeoCons (ex-Democrats), terrified of confronting or splitting AIPAC.
What narrative does the DCCC have other than the cartoonish "won't anybody think about the children?"
Briefly, Jim WEBB, articulated the hope of a "New Direction". But, he was quickly sent to the back benches by this party's senior wind-bags and the pimp-consultants who raise money from bi-partisan concession-tenders. That money goes for perpetual campaigns and petty patronage, not for a disciplined Congressional majority responsive to a popular majority.
The Congressional Democrats are waiting for LUGAR, WARNER, and others to tell them what to do next because they cannot restrain the crooks and cranks in their own ranks --- HOYER, LIEBERMAN, and so on.
They have no plans, just deals.
They cannot exercise the power of the purse in the House because they have to Hold Harmless the entire legacy of the Great, World, and Cold Wars, the very foundation of their phony-baloney jobs.
So, at this point, the greatest obstacle Democratic Presidential Hopefuls have is the wildly unpopular Congressional Leadership -- "Jes' He'p Ever'body" foils for the "Stay the Course" GOP.
Since they cannot effectively oppose the GOP on any significant matter of defense or foreign policy, they are not a credible alternative to the GOP today. The GOP can make-up and script Fred THOMPSON to look like and sound like, oh, Martin SHEEN, Ronald REAGAN, ... whatever will play well in segmented markets before television audiences that will still exist in the absence of responsible, two-party government.
Soldiers have a grim phrase for the Democratic Leadership today: "OTF" for "Out There Flapping" -- a corpse left between the lines -- the Vichy, then Enron, now Weimar Democrats.