I'll tell you what, and its not Israel getting nuked.

Every SUNNI nation in the area will want nukes. They hate Iran just as much as they hate Israel.

So is it really a good idea with all those folks being being armed with nuclear weapons? Will any good come out of that?

"...he advocated covert operations..." Of course it's not terrorism if we do it.

I've had it with these neocon murderers thinking our military is their own personal vendetta machine. Reckless endangerment is a crime in this country and that is essentially what he is advocating. Putting our troops in harms way for his own gain. If these people are so concerned about the state of Israel, then let them renounce their American citizenship and move there.

and anybody can have a stupid idea. W/O Dick Cheney and GWB to build a policy on it, it has no meaning at all.

... pay this jackass to speak anywhere? Why even pay him any mind at all? He's been wrong about just about everything thus far - he's not going to start talking sense now.

Really? By that logic, was Bush's stance a sign of strength?

Did anyone in the world think Bush was strong?

"The danger is that Obama's much more agreeable approach will be misconstrued as weakness."

This logic forced us into Iraq. Once we had massed all those troops, we couldn't NOT send them, the Bushies argued. Once we set a deadline, we couldn't extend it -- in fact, we jumped in early.

WTF?

Look, there's not need to fear or really worry about the idiots. We can outsmart them and outmaneuver them. The enemies to worry about are the smart ones. They are the ones that we can't run circles around. But they aren't going to be idiotic errors.

"But wait," I hear someone say, "what about the smart ones who just don't understand us? Couldn't they make a mistake without being idiots?"

Well, that's an excellent point. What can we do to help the smart ones not to make such a mistake? How can help them to better understand us?

Could it be to engage with them, to work WITH them, cultural exchanges, low-, middle- and high-level visits? Would them help them to understand us better?

*****************************

Perle's basic logic here is incredibly flawed. He's worried that they won't understand us, but are too smart for us to outmaneuver. But rather than address that potential problem, he want to be ruled by his fear of it, as though it is written in the stars.

Which demonstrates why they are so good at outmaneuvering him.

Has a great column online today in which a recent appearence by Perle is critiqued. Apparently, Perle says there is no such thing as neoconservatism and he had nothing to do with anything. It's really fascinating the sociopathic mentality on display.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.

"The danger is that Obama's much more agreeable approach will be misconstrued as weakness."

---Perle

This is idiotic. And to illustrate it, let me use a simple analogy from my own teaching career. I am kind and approachable to my students and go out of my way to help them, so new students often mistake this for a sort of wimpiness that will allow them to cut corners or beg for points after a test, even when I tell them I have high standards that I won't bend. However, after the first exam when they get their grades and realize that I meant what I said, they quickly figure out that they can count on me to help them but not to dumb things down to make it easy for them.

The same thing would be true of Iran with respect to Obama's willingness to engage it diplomatically. Were Iran to make that mistake they would soon modify their expectations when he didn't give in just because he was willing to talk with them. That Perle cannot or will not see this says more about him and his shortcomings than it does about Obama.

I'd like to say something erudite, but all I can manage is What an arrogant asshole. And stupid too.

This jabberwock is on drugs... this is the same big-balled attitude that has this country so hated by the rest of the world. Pre-emptive, shut up stooge. I was told a long number of years ago by a really smart guy (Dad) that the second you start a fight, you (screwed) up. The military is a last resort negotiating resource of the diplomats. Eight years of this style of posturing has certainly paid big dividends, yes. God, I am so glad you idiots are no longer in power.

... should be tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail. Why is anyone still listening to this man?

...to fight yet another war against by far the most formidable enemy we will have faced since Vietnam? Doesn't anyone anymore read Clausewitz? Don't they get it that no war can be won unless you have a clear political goal that can be attained at a cost worth paying? By Perle's own logic, won't the Iranians be forced to retaliate by any means at their disposal if their people are being bombed and killed by foreigners? What does he imagine they will do, shit themselves and cry "uncle"? If they are the fanatics he claims they are, won't they strike back with everythign they've got and resort to any nasty tactic they can in retaliation for an attack on their land and people?

A whole swath of the American foreign policy establishment is either derranged or pathological.

Perle and his co-conspirators may suggest NOW that staying was a mistake, but their project was to rebuild Iraq as free-market paradise. Besides, there was no government to take over when Saddam was removed. There was no plan to build one. With Saddam in box thanks to sanctions and foreign troops on his border, it was a matter of time before he died or got overthrown, and the Iraqis replaced him their own way. We can't pick other people's governments.