Do We Need Iran As An Enemy?
Canadian Bacon - 1995
To function as a country, we apparently must have an enemy. Peace and diplomacy doesn't work, as this scene in Michael Moore's 1995 movie satirically depicts. When lacking a real enemy, we must create one.
And that is what the Senate did last week, apparently without the blessings of the President. Who is the enemy? Iran.
In a surprisingly swift move on Thursday night that could have wide-ranging implications, the U.S. Senate passed a bill containing broad unilateral sanctions to punish foreign companies that export gasoline to Iran or help expand its domestic refinery capabilities.
The voice vote came at the eleventh hour before the chamber recessed so legislators could go home to campaign. The bill cannot come before the president to be signed into law until a conference procedure combines it with a similar House bill, the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act (IRPSA), passed in October.
The Senate move reveals an administration losing control of even its own party in foreign policy dealings, as U.S. President Barack Obama has tried to maintain engagement with Iran aimed at curbing its nuclear programme, which the Islamic Republic insists is for peaceful purposes.
Along with scores of Democrats, who favoured the bill over the administration's objections, the effort was supported by Iran hawks including Republican co-sponsor John Kyl and neoconservative independent Joe Lieberman, and was characterised by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as a shot at Obama.
"If the Obama administration will not take action against this regime, then Congress must," McConnell said.
Take action for what? Remind me again, what American interest has Iran threatened? That's right, NONE. Now the neo-cons/hawks will scream "nuclear weapons!", but we had a new NIE this month on Iran, and guess what? No nuclear weapons program. But don't let some little piddly facts get in the way of starting yet another war front in the Middle East:
As the Obama administration edges toward imposing tougher sanctions on Iran, it has begun upgrading its approach to defending its Persian Gulf allies against potential Iranian missile strikes, officials said Saturday.
The United States has quietly increased the capability of land-based Patriot defensive missiles in several Gulf Arab nations, and one military official said the Navy is beefing up the presence of ships capable of knocking down hostile missiles in flight.
What the hell, people? Where are all those deficit queens now? Can we possibly afford--in both lives and treasure--yet another war of choice, with a country that is not threatening us?
Are we doomed to keep repeating mistakes of lessons not learned, or is this another example of needing an enemy?
So long as the country is led by Democrats or Republicans, yes. Viva la differance!
Of course we can, since the ones who will profit from it are neither fighting it, or paying for it.
to be the enemy or be acknowledged...Anything to recognized by a govrn't [foreign] other than Chavez. What the senate has done is foolish pandering because they have done NOTHNG for the American people in the past year! This is very republican scare tactics to divert attention!
Afford ? This has no teeth but they were hoping for press...Silly and foolish!
This is a saying my brother brought back from Annapolis and probably indicative of the Pentagon's thinking.
We should have listened to Ike. The last good Republican president. If you don't count Clinton.
For rulers who need to have enemies... if there is a hell, then there is no place hot enough and no stick long enough for Satan to roast their marshmallowy asses on.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
mentioning eisenhower 'rolling in his grave' in a discussion about iran and the US needing enemies must cause mossadeq to roll in his grave... (not to mention arbenz)
If I remember correctly from my Zinn lesson on C&L a few days back, United States imperialism has been the pursuit of both parties for well over a century.
"All (America) foreign policy is to secure access to natural reources." I saw that quote in a magazine--some big D.C. muckety-muck, but I forget who.
far left loon >.<
This is exactly what the corrupt Iranian government wants. By many indications Iran is on the verge or in a civil war right now. The Government under fire in Iran would love for a foreign nation to attack them that way they can regain control by getting the people to rally around the government.
This will be Iraq all over again. Iraq was also nearing a civil war before we attacked.
Gee, guess why Iran is "on the verge of civil war". Could it have anything to do with the C.I.A. stirring up trouble? Could those special force operatives that are working in Iran have anything to do with it? The US is a pariah state. The US is THE worst terrorist exporting state in the world. What has Iran done to cause the disgusting interference of the number 1 terrorist state? Nothing.
Iraq was also a victim of US aggression. Saddam was their boy before he wasn't. He threatened to start trading in the Euro instead of US dollars and therefore had to go. The US will not allow any government to use anything but US style capitalism. The Iraq war in the 1990's was a total set-up. Kuwait was slant drilling into Iraqi oil wells. Saddam was told by the US ambassador that the US would do nothing and it was ok to invade. We all know what happened after that. Demolishing the Iraqi army and most importantly the industrial infrastructure of Iraq. The US imposed sanctions killed over a million and half Iraqis. Including an estimated half million children. When asked if she thought it was worth it, Madeline Albright confirmed that it was. Such humanitarians in the US leadership. Lies and deceptions are the rule of the day when it comes to US foreign policy.
Didn't Oceania beat Michael Moore to the concept?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
War is Peace !
Ignorance is Strength !
Freedom is Slavery !
Sun, 01/31/2010 - 08:09 — Neoatg
It's called the Rally Around the Flag effect, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is backed by Ayatollah Ali Khameini who neither one of which is popular with the the other Ayatollahs, but Khameini is backed by the military.
So a war might successfully change Iran from a totalitarian theocracy to a totalitarian military dictatorship, albeit probably still with a veneer of religion.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Mr. Obama is a much more appealing personality than his abrasive, dim-witted, suspended adolescent of a predecessor, but in substance he's differed very little. I doubt he'd be willing to endure the political consequences of vetoing this abominable measure, but one can hold out a faint, fugitive hope on that front.
It would be nice if President Obama were to veto this legislation, as I doubt the House and/or Senate has the votes to override the veto, but I just don't see President Obama having the spine to do so.
Election 2012: Be Educated! Be Active! Vote!
www.PhoenixJustice.com
Much more populous and less fractured as a society and unlike Iraq, it has had the time to greatly rebuild it's strength after the Iran Iraq war and we STILL can't control Iraq, by far the lesser of the two. The people who think that a war with Iran is a good idea are delusional to the point at which I wonder about the people who give them column space and television face time. I mean, it must be policy to allow certifiably insane sociopaths with no expertise to be given a platform to espouse unfounded conjecture and ridiculously mad scenarios and call them "experts". Keep in mind that they are the same people that are belatedly now universally acknowledged as being wrong on everything they said about Iraq yet they are still turned to with a sort of awe for their vastly superior rationale. Israel's hand is in this as surely as Houston, Texas stinks but they can't be held solely responsible for our nation's reaction to the bullshit. Despite their dismal track record, naked agenda and overt partisanship, people still flock to their sets and their newspapers to get their daily dose of poison and irrational opinion presented as fact or analysis. These people try to present science as opinion, opinion as knowledge and ideology as wisdom. And our politicians just lap it all up, thinking no further than those defense, (offense really), dollars that will continue flowing into their pockets and their PACs from lobbyists. This is what DC has become. The politicians go after the dollars and the complicit media drives the public opinion. Though finding an uncorrupted politician is probably a fool's errand, they couldn't get their way if the media were not in their corner, reporting what they want them to, rather than the truth. As long as they have an audience, there will be no pressure to change that.
Barack Obama: Change we can only imagine
Israel now has a minimum of 200 nuclear weapons with the systems to deliver them to many areas of the Middle East including Iran. Iran has NO nuclear weapons.
Israel is NOT a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. Iran is.
Israel REFUSES TO ALLOW IAEA INSPECTIONS of it's nuclear sites. Iran does.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/09/18/...
AIPAC is probably the most powerful lobbying group in the United States and if a person is even close to becoming a member of Congress or POTUS he/she MUST BE VETTED BY AIPAC AND MUST DECLARE ALLEGIANCE TO ISRAEL TO GET ELECTED.
If not, AIPAC will smear the individual as being anti-Semetic.
AIPAC should be forced to register as a foreign agent of influence but it is an UNTOUCHABLE.
AIPAC and Israel is behind everything thing you are seeing in Congress regarding any votes against Iran. And Lieberman is their go to guy.
To show the power of AIPAC and Israel, consider that in 1967 Israel bombed the USS Liberty for HOURS, killed scores of navy men and there has never been an honest investigation of the truth to this date.
And believe me when I say, I am NOT anti-Semetic. I am anti-Zionist.
I appreciate comments from Nicole and others.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
Between being anti Semitic and being anti Israel, though there are far too many people who don't get a distinction that isn't even that subtle. Asserting that everybody who is anti Zionist or anti Israel must be anti Semitic is exactly the same thing as saying that everybody who hates Uganda's kill the Gays law hates black people.
Barack Obama: Change we can only imagine
I submit that there are larger groups of people in the world, such as the Kurds and the Baluch, or the people of East Timor, that do not have their own homeland, and for whom the US doesn't accept their desire for autonomy as legitimate, or ignores them, or labels them terrorists. Israel is unique only in the they're industrialized, new, and has powerful interests exploiting the US.
That's not anti-semetic, it's a fact.
Arabs are Semites.
Is Israel anti-semitic?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
That is just soooooo unlike us.
israel told us to have a war w/ Iran.
Cue the Kabuki....
Thank you!!
If you haven't seen this video of the BBC's "Dead In the Water" regarding Israel's bombing of the USS Liberty in 1967 I highly recommend it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ujoc1DYjuPE&fe...
One of the Navy men who is still surviving has just released his book regarding the attack:
http://theuglytruth.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/“what-i-saw-that-day…israel’s-1967-holocaust-of-american-servicemen-aboard-the-uss-liberty-and-its-aftermath”/
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
We should be invading Rupert Murdoch. He much more of a direct danger to this country than Iran.
No surprise at all Lieberman is partly behind this. We need rational leadership on foreign policy not religious fanaticism.
Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity. Albert Einstein
All other countries look like nails.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUKB3PxG-0E
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
It's like deja vu all over again.
"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper
probably isn't coming to these guys on their own; they're not analyzing and deciding that Iran is a risk. The meme is being pushed by a conservative think tank, or an oil lobby group, or maybe even Boeing. Follow the money...
Typical quackery from our Corporate Fascist friends.
But very telling, even predictable behavior from Right Wing Authoritarians(RWA) and their Social Dominating(SDO) masters. The Dems have shown their true selves, as being RWA themselves.
Besides there is an economy to stimulate, and nothing lines the pockets of the elite few like a war!
There is no Left, left in this country. Nor honor amongst Dems.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-BJlZVfPXU&fe...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Its hard to "get left" in other countries too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAgX6qlJEMc
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
are economic war.
This is part of the global war on economies...
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
No, it's a part of international diplomacy that runs on a continuum from accords and treaties to actual war based upon increasing/decreasing hostilities.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
we threaten our neighbors and wage corporate war with them anyway, our leaders seem to be taking us down that path.
of George Galloway talking to a caller about this subject back in 08. Mr. Galloway pretty much said what you said Margaret. The best part is at the end of the conversation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43CGnZMVBjM
had their hired stooges in Congress pass a message. They're tired of China making all the inroads in the Middle East. "Give the contracts to us or we'll blow you up."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politic...
What a sad day it is to realize that any formidable "Peace Movement" in the United States is, for all intents and purposes, dead.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
That's because we're dead tired.
I just heard a report that American productivity is up, so they're hoping they'll be more jobs.
Why, if the work is already being done by people who are ready to drop on the floor from exhaustion?
And that's probably counting American industries that outsource to foreign prisons and orphanages.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
has been replaced with the “mine,” “more,” and “now” movement.
I forget if it was pat robertson or another reichwinger that complained that Islamists take over the whole of society and is not just a Sunday only religion.
I could tell if he was denouncing them or expressing jealousy.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
From remnant to wall to wall... that about covers it ;)
Study the symptoms not the virus...
This exchange between Obama and a young woman in Florida happened after the State of the Union:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npjKObsTAng
This shows the power of Israel over the U.S.
Even though I don't personally buy the Osama bin Laden 19 Arabs in a Cave Meme, it is interesting that during his trial KSM declared the U.S.'s support of Israel as the prime reason for the attacks on 9/11 but this has never been brought out in the MSM:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44wK72Snm6Y&an...
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
just a slight correction: This came out during Moussoui's trial.
"In a surprisingly swift move on Thursday night that could have wide-ranging implications, the U.S. Senate passed a bill containing broad unilateral sanctions to punish foreign companies that export gasoline to Iran or help expand its domestic refinery capabilities."
What if those foreign countries start making campaign contributions?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Wouldn't this increase Iranian desire for domestic nuclear energy?
And won't we just use that as a provocateur?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
would go belly up without enemies. Our wars are the only thing keeping us from falling off into the economic abyss this time.
I mean investors will pay a couple guys 2.9 Billion for Skype, but when it comes to real product and needed services not a dime.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/07/3...
Same old story. Bleed them til someone reacts. Then use the reaction as a premise for military action.
The republicans in congress are also using this to get back at Obama for schooling them this week (note the timing and urgency). The Dems are just as culpable, as they continue their politically expedient strategy of trying to look tough. If Obama vetoes the bill, he appears soft on terror. It's just infuriating.
So we have arms sales to Taiwan, increasing "missle shield" in the persian gulf, and now this. It's a banner week for the warmongers. But Obama saved some jobs, so we should all bow to the king.
Fuck that.
"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper
Iran just has a different ideology... that's all.
Study the symptoms not the virus...
the high road....
any democracy in the world that doesn't look like the USA's Crony Capitalism is fair game for "Change". And any country in the world, democracy or otherwise, that is sitting on top of natural resources that the USA is "rightfully entitled to" deserves to be overthrown and/or invaded and occupied. We're the "World's Policeman" and we always have our hand out for graft via our MICC "protection racket". "You've got a nice shiny new green technology program started there, Iran. It would be a shame if something "happened" to it. We'll be taking some more of that "black gold" and natural gas as a tribute, for our trouble."
/snark
What is particularly disturbing is the glee with which the Democratic Party, in both the White House and the Congress, are so willingly on-board with a conflict with Iran.
How many Democrats in the Congress voted FOR the overt 400 Million USD$ funding to destabilize the legal, duly elected democratic government of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the last Congressional session?
How many Democrats have cow-towed, hat in hand, to the likes of the C-Street Mobsters and the not-quite lobbyist AIPAC lobby?
Just how close are the ties between the USA MICC and the Israeli Defense Industry?
What entity, foreign government or tax base, does the Obama administration think will fund a "new and improved" Gulf War against Iran, with a population nearly twice that of Iraq?
So much for "Change we can believe in (TM) !"
I "Hope" I am wrong about the Obama administration ...
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
We need to dig into this stuff a lot more if we are going to solve some problems in this society.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXDOlWcD4aM
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
Are more freindly to the people of America then anyone in the GOP.
As a matter of fact I would have more faith in something Amedenigad said then anyone in the GOP. I mean the GOP have proven themselves to be shiftless, greedy, lying, scumbags.
republicanism/conservatism is a mental illness!
Pretty fucking prophetic isn't it?
To take out the jackels!
republicanism/conservatism is a mental illness!
We have met the enemy and he is us.
We don't! But the CIA, Pentagon and their corrupt fraud ridden contractors do.
I think you are confusing the fat Michael Moore with the fat John Candy (I Love MM BTW but man is he fat)
What if China decides they want to step in (to the void) and develop Iranian oil fields and refineries? They surely want the oil. How do you sanction your banker?
far left loon >.<
Israel has nothing to do with this. I will say the followng simply for obvious reasons. The major oil producers in the Arabian Peninsula are afraid of Iran's growing military strength and its aggressive language. Therefore, we perceive Iran as a threat to world wide oil distribution. Now if Iran would disrupt the oil supply to the world it would be a very, very bad thing not just for the USA but for everyone. Could you imagine how much money it might take to pay for the transportation of your favorite foods to Burger King ? OMG you might have to pay $20 for one wopper. So American power is stationed around Iran just to make sure it understands that it can beat up and terrorize its own people as much as it wants....but don't interfere with the world's oil supply. Too bad all the left wingers have stopped America from building nuclear plants and from drilling for new oil, because if we were energy independent we would not have to care what Iran did to the oil supplies...aren't you smart.
[Deleted-Sitemonitor]
"Now if Iran would disrupt the oil supply to the world it would be a very, very bad thing not just for the USA but for everyone."
The banking system nearly collapsed, and the government gave away trillions of dollars. So if oil is disrupted, the economy would nearly collapse... why not just pump trillions of dollars into the economy? Why not do that instead of spending trillions of dollars to guard the Strait of Hormuz? What's the difference?
I write this from a very cynical place, not from a sarcastic or disagreeable point of view.
It is not just our economy...it is the world's economy that will
crash. America does not have enough trillions to hold up the world
economy; and American does not have enough trillions to avoid being
affected by the collapse of the world economy.
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