Yesterday we saw, against the backdrop of war between Russian and Georgia over Ossetia, The Real News discussing the decision by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to step down amid corruption allegations and the coming contest in Israel between the two major contenders to replace Olmert as head of the Kadima party; frontrunner Tzipi Livni, a former Mossad operative and current Foreign Minister, and her main rival Shaul Mofaz, a hawkish former general and current Transportation Minister, and whether the next Israeli leader will order an attack on Iran.
Today, The Real News presents, from American News Project:
Washington’s neocons are alive and well, advising both John McCain and President Bush. Now many are saying Bush should permit Israel to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities after Election Day before the new president takes office. ANP investigates as we chase down John Bolton, Bill Kristol and Frank Gaffney to see how far ahead these hawks are thinking. And a new report says the whole plan could backfire. August 9, 2008 – 8 min 16 sec
Operation Comeback
November 1, 2006
by Joshua Muravchik
American Enterprise Institute (AEI.org)
TO: My Fellow Neoconservatives
FROM: Joshua Muravchik
RE: How to Save the Neocons
We neoconservatives have been through a startling few years. Who could have imagined six years ago that wild stories about our influence over U.S. foreign policy would reach the far corners of the globe? The loose group of us who felt impelled by the antics of the 1960s to migrate from the political left to right must have numbered fewer than 100. And we were proven losers at Washington’s power game: The left had driven us from the Democratic Party, stolen the “liberal” label, and successfully affixed to us the name “neoconservative.” In reality, of course, we don’t wield any of the power that contemporary legend attributes to us. Most of us don’t rise at the crack of dawn to report to powerful jobs in government. But it is true that our ideas have influenced the policies of President George W. Bush, as they did those of President Ronald Reagan. That does feel good. Our intellectual contributions helped to defeat communism in the last century and, God willing, they will help to defeat jihadism in this one. It also feels good to see that a number of young people and older converts are swelling our ranks.
[snip]
Prepare to Bomb Iran. Make no mistake, President Bush will need to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities before leaving office. It is all but inconceivable that Iran will accept any peaceful inducements to abandon its drive for the bomb. Its rulers are religio-ideological fanatics who will not trade what they believe is their birthright to great power status for a mess of pottage.
…
The global thunder against Bush when he pulls the trigger will be deafening, and it will have many echoes at home. It will be an injection of steroids for organizations such as MoveOn.org. We need to pave the way intellectually now and be prepared to defend the action when it comes. In particular, we need to help people envision what the world would look like with a nuclear-armed Iran.
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An attack on Iran is likely to cause a firestorm across the Middle East, may result in the fall of governments in Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, will likely draw Syria and the US in, if in fact it is not the US that attacks Iran, and may according to Vladimir Putin’s recent statement’s, result in war between Russia and the US. Many thousands if not hundreds of thousands of civilian lives are at stake as well as the possible collapse of the world economy if the flow of mid east oil is cut, meaning that China is likely to become involved as well in some capacity.
We may have a looming World War in the making here.
Perhaps John Edwards sex life is more concerning to some?
I can’t help but wonder what it is they’re really afraid of with Iran. You know its not nuclear capabilities – otherwise all this kind of rhetoric would have been roared at N. Korea or Pakistan. Its just another “mushroom cloud” scare like WMD’s in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq.
I wonder about things like Iran’s threat to trade oil in a currency other than dollars, or perhaps more generally, their dominance in the Middle East (thanks of course to our success in getting rid of Saddam), or what??????
In the end, of course, what their real reasons are doesn’t matter as much as the fact that they have to be stopped.
have wrecked the conservative ‘brand’ by alarming the old line types along with a lot of the religious non nuts. They also irritated the big money global with the likes of Wolfy making a mess at the world bank. They couldn’t even install a decent puppet government in Irag. They still have media pull however why I don’t know. Fox news and Time have Bill Crystal, and Rove the subpoena dodger is allowed to spew his venom. Then there is Lieberman our own rogue neocon. Is this agenda still in place? Redy to be implemented by the next administration be it D or R? Or is this rabid talk from Israel just their neocon right wing hard liners rattling swords and pushing for war?
Muravchik says:
Well, I hope they go ahead and try to make a case because they haven’t even tried to. The most they’ve done is grunt in the direction of Iran–“they bad, we good”. Now if we can get them to actually accept the idea of reality, debate, defending positions on intellectual grounds I suspect the sky will split open and angels will dance and sing. In fact, the world would look much the same and maybe better, maybe worse if Iran got a nuclear weapon which they may not even want.
The “nuclear armed Iran” meme is just propaganda and excuse for war–nothing resembling a case for stopping Iran has been made anywhere other than the idea that the Iranian leadership is “crazy”. Look whose calling the kettle black.
for those who profit from war.
Which means for the military, CIA, FBI, and many corporations.