Letters to the Editor
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Re: The Power of Nightmares
That's a GREAT documentary. It should be required viewing in every American/World history class.
Oddly, Leo Strauss and Said Qotb were almost like two sides of the same coin. The militants, both American and Muslim, who have decided on the behalf of the rest of us that we should be engaged in perpetual war are the crops that grew from the seeds sown by these two men.
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Grateful to Glenn for His Unalterably Sinful Ways
Glenn is deeply committed to one of the greatest sins of all in the U.S. political power system: that of memory. Not that memory which is selective and servile, but the memory which causes us to question.
There are many other sins, but Orwell was neither the first nor the last to notice how inconvenient and previously obvious facts must first disappear down the memory hole before some new goal may be achieved.
Speaking of the likely consequences of our policies and rhetoric is disallowed, because those who come to conclusions disfavored by the hawkish powers that be is derided as liberals giving into paranoia and delusion.
Recalling the factual legacy of a policy and rhetoric is also disallowed, because that was then, and this is now, and what counts is that we recall only what is necessary to push forward with the desired hawkish policy now.
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@Svensker
The Jerusalem Post also had an item about this yesterday (courtesy of Salon's 5 Things):
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627027461&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
The ambassador on Fox makes it official, this is a media tour to promote ... uh, something.
The JP story adds the alarming detail that Iran has smuggled in E. Euro cruise missiles that can avoid the Arrow (i.e. Patriot-derived air defense system the US provided $2-3 billion for)system ... just to make sure no one worries about delivery systems the way we famously didn't in advance of Iraq. The urgency! We must strike before it is too late!
We can now look forward to more right-wing 'scholars' putting out 'well-researched' pieces about Ahmedinejad's 'apocalytic vision' which will get endless play in the usual media suspects.
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Svensker
The ful court press for bombing Iran is on
Israel Ambassador on Fox this morning saying the Iran will have nukes BEFORE THE END OF THE YEAR and Iran is a threat to civilization as we know it. AND Iran is preparing the next Holocaust.
The "before the end of the year" thing is obviously code for "before Bush/Cheney leave office."
Bush/Cheney have nothing to lose by bombing Iran -- they don't care how unpopular they are and they don't really care if other Repubicans lose elected seats. Not to mention they don't care about the deaths of thousands of people and the destruction of the American economy. History will be their judge -- approvingly, they think -- and their families and friends won't be hurt. So, not big deal for them AND they're saving civilization! One bomb at a time.
Is there anything that can be done to stop them at this point? Seriously?
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This is why I cannot watch TV news anymore. The major news outlets are as fact free as Dana Perino, Tony Snow and the rest of these unnamed administration sources that the NY Times, Washington Post and others keep quoting.
Now that I've vented my spleen, I truly hope that the ambassador misspoke (I know, that is like hoping the Redskins will have an actual general manager any time soon, not too likely). The IAEA told everyone the deal. Tehran quit their nuclear program in 2003. If the mullahs went ahead with all deliberate speed since that IAEA investigation and report was publicized, Iran still would not have nuclear capability for YEARS.
I am too disgusted for words.
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Ledeen & Machiavelli
Ledeen is a strong admirer of Niccolò Machiavelli, whom he regards as one of the greatest political thinkers. In Ledeen's view, Machiavelli combined democratic idealism and the necessary political realism to secure and defend idealism in perfect measure.
If these neocons weren't sophists of the highest order who read literally *anything they want* into the classic texts of this culture, they'd remember that Machiavelli devotes almost an entire chapter in The Prince to reasons why you should never hire mercenaries like Blackwater:
1) they cost more, at the expense of your regular army
2) they have no loyalty
3) when you don't need them anymore, you have to keep paying them
4) there's no reason to think they won't come after you anyway
Of course many neocons are on boards of directors and so forth of mercenary companies.
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@damaged goods
You hit it. It doesn't matter who is in power. Examine the career patterns of any given neo-con over the past ten-twenty years; there are established holding-areas on the other side of the revolving door where they can go to ground when a Dem administration is in office. Think tanks, fellowships, university departments and right-wind endowed chairs, NDU and so forth.
Obviously, they don't go away. They continue to speak, to organize, to publish and to program.
In some ways, they're more dangerous then because they have more time to plan, solicit support in the defense 'periphery', recruit, publish revisionist accounts that paper over everything that went wrong on their 'watch' (and more stab-in-the-back nonsense), disseminate the half-baked theories and frameworks, which will then be taken up, diluted and fragmented, and then popularized for rhetorical leverage later by Fred Hiatt, David Brooks, Robert Kaplan and other 'popular' writers ... all without having to account for anything contemporary that they've been in charge of.
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Depravation
"the truly depraved extremist group that brought us the invasion of Iraq"
I take it you're not a hillary supporter.
hillary's argument for the war: http://clinton.senate.gov/speeches/iraq_101002.html
What do you think about obama's plan to attack terrorist camps in Pakistan?
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@Svensker
"Bush/Cheney have nothing to lose by bombing Iran -- they don't care how unpopular they are and they don't really care if other Republicans lose elected seats. Not to mention they don't care about the deaths of thousands of people"
- Svensker
This is not meant as an attack against Svensker, but Iran is a nation of roughly 71 million people. If our government proceeds with this unparalleled plan of evil to "obliterate" Iran, as Hillary Clinton and her fellow members of the extreme radical right and radical left hope to do, we're not talking thousands. We're talking a probable holocaust of millions of people being incinerated, not unlike what occurred 60 years ago. The cavalier talk of obliteration and nuclear war by our political crackpots and unquestioning media, something which the world has never witnessed or endured, begs a much larger question than "who will be the next president" - the bigger question is what will the American people do if their country is responsible for a modern day holocaust. Will there just being more angry talk, angry blogs, 'strongly worded' editorials and ‘powerful’ documentaries, or will there be violent retribution, a justifiable national uprising, a revolution in this country, against such an evil, tyrannical force?
A holocaust certainly requires a greater response than words.