There is a disgusting conceit that underlies the “realist” position that negotiations will solve these problems: the conceit that tyrants will be easier to deal with than free peoples. Rabin and Peres actually said this, once upon a time, with their smug statements to the effect that Arafat and the others would control the terrorists because they didn’t give a damn about the Geneva Conventions or other legal niceties. They, and those who think the same applies to the Iranians, forget that our enemies want us dead or dominated, they don’t want a world at peace in which they will have to deal with real problems of governance. They are waging jihad, not diplomacy.
It follows from this that you cannot “solve” Gaza by fighting in Gaza alone, you have to win the terror war. And to do that, you must accomplish regime change, just as Netanyahu said. But the crucial regime change must be accomplished in Iran. Whatever Israel accomplishes in Gaza (and the same holds for our battles in Iraq and Afghanistan), it is only a matter of time before the mullahs reorganize, rearm, and return to battle. And the next battle may involve nuclear weapons.
Paradoxically, those people who fume at the very idea of challenging the Iranian regime are actually making a truly terrible war more likely, not less. Those few of us who believe that support for Iranian democratic dissidents could bring down the mullahs are almost universally scorned, and even accused of seeking war. It is just the opposite. The same accusations were directed against us when we supported Soviet dissidents, and called for regime change in Moscow. And yet the Soviet Empire came down. The Iranian regime is far weaker than the Soviet state. An overwhelming number of Iranians oppose the regime, and are dreaming of the day when we finally embrace their cause. Perhaps there are still some brave men and women in the Democratic Party who understand that America is a revolutionary country, and that we are bound by our honor, our principles, and our national interest to support the democratic forces in Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia, the three leading terror masters, along with those in Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia, now scurrying to jump on the bandwagon of Islamic tyranny.
Finally, if I am right, it is impossible to address the Arab/Israeli conflict by itself, for the context is all wrong. Nobody in Gaza or the West Bank, nor in Amman or Cairo, can guarantee peace for Israel. Today, that decision rests in the hands of Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Until there is a different government in Tehran, there cannot be peace between Arabs and Israelis, any more than there can be peace in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan or Lebanon.
It’s a big war, but we’re a big country with enormous capacities. Time to fight the real war.
Faster, Please.
UPDATE: David Horovitz in the Jerusalem Post gets it: http://www.jpost.com
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WELCOME INSTAPUNDITEERS! Feel free to jump into the very lively free-for-all. And have a look at the great letter from one of our soldiers in Afghanistan in the previous post.
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69 Comments
1. kabud:This is the only way to go:
support for Iranian democratic dissidents could bring down the mullahs
Also he believes in the exactly the same approach
Dr. Assad Homayoun, a former Iranian diplomat from the era of the Shah regime and head of the Azadegan Foundation, an umbrella organization which supports democratic change in Iran.
Dr. Homayoun, who is one of the most prominent spokesmen of Iran’s exiled nationalist opposition, discusses the current political situation in Iran.
interesting audio interview here:
Dec 29, 2008 - 1:14 pm 2. John Moore:http://www.jrnyquist.com/media/Homayoun%20Interview.mp3
I am sympathetic but highly skeptical of the ability of the Democratic resistance to bring down the regime. Ideologically driven authoritarian regimes are especially hard to topple. The USSR fell apart after many decades of failure, and a powerful assault on their ideology. It is likely that the Iranian regime will have similar durability.
Dec 29, 2008 - 1:33 pm 3. Mary Madigan:And Iran is the most lethal, the most dangerous, and the most aggressive terror master in the world today
No, Saudi Arabia is the most dangerous and the most aggressive terror master in the world today.
Like the global totalitarian movements and regimes that threatened Western civilization in the last century, the Saudis come with a messianic ideology that admits no compromise with its enemies. Of the Wahhabi/Sauds, Winston Churchill said in 1920 “The Wahabis profess a life of exceeding austerity, and what they practise themselves they rigorously enforce on others. They hold it as an article of duty, as well as of faith, to kill all who do not share their opinions and to make slaves of their wives and children.”
The Saudis, a very traditional people, haven’t changed much since then. As the hub of world terrorism, Saudis made up 55% of foreign fighters in Iraq. The majority of the suicide bombers in Iraq were Saudis. The majority of al Qaeda members are Saudis, and Saudis provide the majority of terrorist financing. The majority of 9/11 hijackers were Saudi, and that act of war was Saudi financed. After 9/11, Americans who live in Saudi Arabia report that the entire population celebrated their victory. According to polls taken in October 2001, 95% of educated Saudis sympathize with bin Laden.
In 2004, Chief Justice Sheik Saleh Al Luhaidan, went on television and demanded that young Saudis go to Iraq and become suicide bombers. The government gave its approval second act of war against the United States by promoting Al Luhaidan (a close friend of King Abdullah).
Despite a few half-hearted efforts to fight Saudi terrorism, Saudi charities (like al-Haramain), which finance Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups Hamas, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, and the Abu Sayyaf Group, are still operating worldwide.
There are thousands of pro-democracy advocates in Iran, but there are only (approximately) one or two of them in Saudi Arabia, and neither of them has any political power or influence. The Saudi/Wahhabi government only fights al Qaeda when their army attacks at home. This is the standard arrangement that any government has with its army – fight abroad, no coups at home, please.
This is why our current efforts to paint Iran as the big bad guy are misguided. Yes, Iran is bad – they’re financing Hezbollah and they’re building nukes. But our government is responding to these threats by helping Saudi Arabia control the Middle East and build a nuclear facility. That’s not a solution to the problem.
Iran and Saudi Arabia are the twin pillars of world terrorism. The difference between them – Iran talks often about killing Americans. Saudi Arabia actually does kill thousands of Americans. They do this fairly often. But, according to both the Republicans and the Democrats, they are our allies.
If we want to understand the terrorist infrastructure, we need to pay attention to what they do, not what they say. If we attack only Iran, we’ll make our Saudi enemies stronger. We don’t want to turn the Middle East into a bunch of Somalias and Gazas, two places whose Islamist leaders are supported by the Sauds.
The best course of action would be to weaken these terror supporting rulers, economically and politically. We can best do that by realizing that empowering our Saudi enemies is just as dangerous as empowering Iran, by doing whatever we can to cripple their infrastructure and economies while leaving a small, controllable shell of their governments intact. We also need to dismantle the Muslim Brotherhood which controls terrorist financing and the agencies in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Libya which train terrorists worldwide.
Dec 29, 2008 - 1:39 pm 4. David Thomson:“Perhaps there are still some brave men and women in the Democratic Party who understand that America is a revolutionary country, and that we…”
The odds of this being the case are not good. The Democratic Party is overall existentially committed to self-hating Americanism. Our only hope is that Barack Obama may have his head on half-way straight. If not—everybody is royally screwed. Today’s Democrats do realize that we are a revolutionary country. Alas, they are unfortunately talking about the 1960 revolutionary efforts of Saul Alinsky and Bill Ayers! Who in hell are George W. Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Sam Adams? They sound like a bunch of reactionary white dudes.
Dec 29, 2008 - 1:42 pm 5. Uzi:All well and good, but the American electorate did not choose the presidential candidate who most clearly “gets it”. They elected the one who wants to negotiate with Iran. I don’t see how America (or the rest of the West) can win this war when our people’s heart isn’t in it. 9/11 was a much more devastating attack than Pearl Harbour – occuring right in the heart of Manhattan and at the Pentagon itself – yet it seems not to have brought forth what General Eisenhower called “the power of an aroused democracy”. T.S. Eliot had it right after all, our world – or at least Western civilization- will end “not with a bang but a whimper”.
Dec 29, 2008 - 1:48 pm 6. Uzi:Dr. Ledeen,
Here’s a question for you? Can the Khomeinist regime maintain its grip on power in Iran with oil at slightly over 30 dollars per barrel, and if you think they can, where do you think they can make the budget cuts without losing power?
Dec 29, 2008 - 1:54 pm 7. Mehran:I agree with John Moore. As an Iranian it grieves me to say so, but the exiled so-called Opposition have shown themselves to be particularly inept, duplicitous vainglorious, and riven by feuds and factionalism (partly feulled by Western intelligence services’ desire to play one group against another). Why do you think the mullahs have lasted this long?
The only true oppostion to the regime, and one which has to be cultivated and encouraged, is from within the country itself, namely the students, women and workers’ movements. But even then the scope for action is rather limited, as finding yourself on the wrong side of the mullahs’ revolutionary guards can be quite a frightening experience.
The only ray of hope for the Middle East (and the world) is Israel’s unwavering commitment to defend its citizens and stand up to Hamas and other Islamic thugs in the region.
Dec 29, 2008 - 1:56 pm 8. stuart Williamson:Mr. Ledeen gets it, and states it clearly and forcefully.
The mullahs of Iran and the Wahabists of Saudi Arabia have NO interest in ANY course but all-out bloody death and subjugation of the Jews, Christians, and all other infidel faiths, anywhere. This is hardly a Great Revelation. It is certainly no secret. They are aggressively open about it, pound on it every day in mosques around the world and on the airwaves. Love thy neighbors and live together in peace and understanding are concepts that are totally repellant to them, and they look with contempt on those whose faith is so feeble they would expect a true Muslim to accept them.
The fear of the middle-eastern countries they dismiss and regard with contempt – those nations are powerless and submissive. The greatest gift that Allah has given them – blessed them with – is the incomprehensible, gutless, suicidal inssistance of Europe and the U.S.A. in believing that they can be persuaded by, any form of rhetoric or rational dialog to change their course. Every day we delay the full commitment of our military capabilities is one day more they have to prepare for our destruction. OUR FIXATION ON DELAY IS THEIR GREATEST WEAPON.
With Bush, there was some chance of giving them a taste of what they were up against. With the Chicago patsy in charge, we are faced with the ever more certain likelihood of an attack far more deadly than 9/11 for our wake-up call. And the neo-socialists will claim it was all Bush’s fault for getting them upset.
Dec 29, 2008 - 3:40 pm 9. Bill N:Good grief, Uzi,
Dec 29, 2008 - 3:52 pm 10. Jassem Othman - From the Middle East:All the mullahs have to do is promise to suspend their uranium enrichment (after they have enough for a bomb) in exchange for foreign aid and Obama will fall down in his rush to redistribute our wealth to Iran, just like Carter, Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II have done for North Korea.
On January, 2006, more than 57 % of Palestinians voted for the terrorist organization “Hamas”, and at the same time charter of Hamas calls for the destruction of Israel. On November 8, 2006, Hamas leaders called on Muslims around the world to attack American targets throughout the world. Therefore the Palestinians they are entirely responsible to choose that terrorist organization which represents them in parliament and government, underlines that more than 57 % of Palestinians are terrorists. In other words, the Palestinians are in love with a cult of death.
No doubt there are some innocent people are kill in Gaza , but also there are a lot of Israeli innocent people were killed by that terrorist groups in Israel “All that is outcome of Hamas behavior”. Obviously that terrorist organizations employ the civilian populations as “human shields” as happens today in Gaza, and been happened in 2006 with Israel in Lebanon by Hizbollah. It is only for Israel embarrassment at the world biggest criminal organizations “United Nations, Human Rights Watch”, while Israel just was defending itself and do the same nowadays.
Israel has to humiliate and discipline that terrorist organization sooner not later. The civilized free world have to clean the Middle East from the terrorist organizations and evil thoughts!!!
Proudly I describe Israel in the Middle East is like a (HEALTH MIND IN A SICK BODY). Yes this is the truth, Israel is the only State which practicing a real democracy in the Middle East. Israel is a very very Smart State and healthy in a very terrible and sick world and!!! We should learn from Israel.
Dec 29, 2008 - 3:58 pm 11. winston:WAKE UP, PLEASE!!!
I wish the IDF stop smashing the buildings and just go directly for the source of the problem: The Hamas bosses and the Iranian regime.
Dec 29, 2008 - 4:39 pm 12. Saltherring:I still believe the majority of Americans support Israel, Jassem, with many Christians praying to the true God for Israel’s protection from the evil nations and people that surround her borders.
Dec 29, 2008 - 4:42 pm 13. Bilgeman:Mr.Ledeen:
“So far the Brits and the Vatican have already demanded an end to operations against Hamas, and by the time I finish typing this there will be more.”
Okay, I’ll oblige.
I too, am demanding an end to Israeli operations against Hamas.
I demand that these operations cease immediately…as soon as there’s no more random rocket-firing, suicide-bomber patronizing Hamas muthaphukazz left to eradicate.
(Will that do for ya?)
Dec 29, 2008 - 4:46 pm 14. robert verdi:Look its us or the Islamo-Fascists and their left wing enablers in the left. We have allies in the Middle East, from Iraqi’s to Iranians. The question, who will dictate the path for this century.
Dec 29, 2008 - 5:16 pm 15. robert verdi:The destruction of Israel is a pre-requisite to the destruction of the United States, period.
Dec 29, 2008 - 5:16 pm 16. kabud:7. winston:
if we dare to draw a line to the real source of the problem: it does not stop in Tehran
Regime in IRAN is a kremlin puppet. It was installed with KGB help, is armed by kremlin, their security force was build by KGB, well IRAN is effectively a province of Russia today
So, would you dare to think in that direction?
Dec 29, 2008 - 5:21 pm 17. Cybergeezer:Religious tolerance/freedom does not equate to weakness/vulnerability, or dominance/supremacy. If Islam/muslims had continued with their sciences, there would not be the overwhelming intolerance and ignorance that is their way of life today. Until respect for self and others is taught and believed by muslims, they shall be doomed to destroy themselves along with their mushrikun.
Dec 29, 2008 - 5:23 pm 18. Judy, NYC:this is a worldwide terror network, hamas is only one branch. the crap about israel covers up the real agenda, which is to dominate the world. you can poo-poo their ability to do that and dismiss it, but there it is.
i do not trust anything that comes from the uk lately. if you want to see what domination is, just look at what has become of them…gigantic mosques, social changes, sharia law (!?), an infiltrated justice system built on the foundations of the magna carta and the very foundation of our own law, english law, and now vulnerable to certifiable evil crazies with their asses up in the air.
despite the dimunition of britain and its puppet words, and the always perplexing vatican, the israelis are the ones who horrifyingly have to be in harm’s way every day from these miscreants. and, it isn’t just israel. clearly, the rest of the world is also in harm’s way, but it is israel that wields the 100ton cudgel. and, it is israel that has to absorb the greatest losses.
just as we had to rid the world of nazis – and nazism – we must rid it of this pox on civilized human beings. because realistically, no civilizd nation can survive with constantly focusing on just defending ourselves.
half our economic problems would resolve with the disappearance of this nazi redux. agression in the cause of dominating western thought, from raving lunatics.
perhaps the bbc and the vatican should have another screening of journalist daniel pearl’s head being cut off and videotaped.
how is there any question about tolerating these people after seeing that.
what sort of world allows a psychotic to stand in front of the UN and refer to a democratic nation state made up of jewish, christian and moslem peoples, as a “stinking corpse” – with no significant protest against such a bizarre and ugly threat.
this has to be the end. it is long past time to break up the whole worldwide terror network, protect our international shipping lanes, oil, all decent people and western society. and it’s way overdue.
Dec 29, 2008 - 5:34 pm 19. Robert Belvedere:Mr. Ledeen believes that we can strike the fatal blow at Iran by supporting the dissidents because the structure propping up the regime is rotten. I think he is probably correct, but I think such actions as we should take to support the dissidents would take time to bear fruit and I think, sadly, that time has run out on us [thank you President Bush]. We must pay whatever price is necessary to prevent these death cultists from getting usable nuclear weapons. It will be messy and hard, but we to make a choice: defend the Culture of Light [The West] or submit to the Culture of Death.
Faster, Please! Indeed.
Dec 29, 2008 - 5:45 pm 20. Jassem Othman - From the Middle East:Mr. Saltherring,
I think not only Christians praying to the true God for Israel’s protection, there are free people like me also praying to God for Israel’s protection.
I am a Syrian native, or rather was an Syrian native. I living in Poland, now write to you and in the same time I see the Monument of Heroes of Warsaw Ghetto from my room window. I see it every day because I living near it. Yes everyday I feel their suffering in this ugly area, it is considerably touching my heart. Sometimes I light some candles in front of the Memorial Monument to Heroes of Warsaw Ghetto.
However to this moment, I NEVER heard good phrases from any Pole I met him says “I have respect to Jews, or I like Jews, or admire Jews, or praise Jews”, despite I have lived long years in Poland and my contact only with Poles. But I heard good phrases only from a few persons, maybe they are Jews too, or they are pro-Jews! I JUST heard a lot of hatred phrases scorning Jews and curse them in this country.
Dec 29, 2008 - 6:01 pm 21. One Winner, One Loser : The New Nixon: News and Commentary about the President, his Times, and his Legacy:I saw terrible Polish racism toward Jews and others. Also according to people I have asked them. They told me those who were collaborators with Nazis ruthlessly had treated Jews (women, children, and old men). They brutally burned them, even if Jewish child brought secretly some carrots or a potato to Ghetto in Warsaw the child was shooting by guards who were collaborators with Nazis, although it wasn’t by German guard act.
Ditto I saw here in Poland, something very extraneous, where most Jews conceal their Jewishness and pressuring on their children not to do something publicly Jewish. I really do not blame them. Of course, racism toward Jews in Poland is still most active. So dear Saltherring, the evil nations and people NOT ONLY in the Middle East, you can see anti-Semitism in the heart of Europe as well. Alas
[...] Ledeen on the looming Iranian threat, and how Israel should react to it: Like the global totalitarian movements and regimes that [...]
Dec 29, 2008 - 6:50 pm 22. Anthony (Los Angeles):“Perhaps there are still some brave men and women in the Democratic Party who understand that America is a revolutionary country, and that we are bound by our honor, our principles, and our national interest to support the democratic forces in Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia, the three leading terror masters,”
I doubt it Michael. The party of Harry Truman, Pat Moynihan, and Scoop Jackson, if not dead, is at least in a deep vegetative state. The modern Democratic Party has gone back to its Copperhead roots, as their behavior since 2003 has shown.
Dec 29, 2008 - 6:55 pm 23. cedarford:Uzi:
All well and good, but the American electorate did not choose the presidential candidate who most clearly “gets it”. They elected the one who wants to negotiate with Iran. I don’t see how America (or the rest of the West) can win this war when our people’s heart isn’t in it. 9/11 was a much more devastating attack than Pearl Harbour – occuring right in the heart of Manhattan and at the Pentagon itself – yet it seems not to have brought forth what General Eisenhower called “the power of an aroused democracy”.
No. 9/11 was a brainstorm by one guy, Khalid Shekh Mohammed, who worked a conspiracy known only to about 20 people, done on only a 400K thousand budget, involving 4 airplanes. Binnie was actually the only Saudi who knew. The 15 Saudis added as muscle by Binnie’s insistance did not know they were on a martyrdom mission. (Contrary to much of Mary Madigan’s fearful hysteria about KSA)
The ju-jitsu of using 4 of our own planes against us wrecked one city block in NYC and about 1/20th of the Pentagon.
That is NOTHING remotely as serious as the Jap attack involving 80,000 troops, 400 warships, 550 planes that in two months had the US Pacific Fleet half wrecked, Singapore, the Philippines, Indochina, Hong Kong and the 1st islands of the Dutch East Indies conquered. With subs sinking ships off the West Coast, shelling a refinery, preparing an invasion of Alaska. With Northern Australia being bombed and a full Army of hardened, fanatic Japs hitting British and Indian troops.
NOTHING like the Jap threat. Any people that felt their rule, their wrath, the incredible
inhumanity of their fanatic troops felt they were worse than the Nazis – and fortunately less efficient at butchery.
PS – few Americans feel we should not negotiate with Iran and instead proceed right into a war likely to be 4-5 times more ruinous to America than the Iraq mess.
Nor do many believe it is a “Global War on Terror” anymore, but a series of different threats that do not rise to an existiential threat. In that context, as wars go, 9/11 was a very minor attack. In the 7+ year aftermath, the problem was compounded by an “American Churchill” of abysmal persuasive powers bent on “unarousing” people so they could love shopping, travel, doing something nice for your neighbor, extolling the “Religion of Peace” and the “Noble People” that consider US soldiers unclean, intruding filth…at best.
Dec 29, 2008 - 7:18 pm 24. WhyamInotsurprised?:What I have noticed on networks like CNN and BBC are video of supposed “victims” of the Israeli attack. Men carry bundles which look like children but they are wrapped in white, only a portion of the face showing, and no blood anywhere. Don’t misunderstand me. I am not looking for the gruesome, but I am looking for evidence of “real” not staged scenes. I have noticed this on more than this occasion. The Palestinians are good actors. Men, women, are shown “holding their heads.” What is this supposed to show? There is no blood, they don’t show people on the ground with wounds. I believe that so much of what is shown on these networks is staged to fool the unquestioning people of the world and generate criticism of Israel. The Palestinians have their stage and the networks provide the broadcast. What a bunch of hate promoting fools.
Now take the other side when the gruesome results of terrorist attacks on Israeli citizens is shown in living color. People on the ground, torn clothes, blood everywhere, body parts. Why show this and not the other side? Could it be so those who hate Jews can “relish” the success of their attacks? The complicity of the networks is disgusting. But realizing their is a large market for their lies is even more disgusting.
Dec 29, 2008 - 7:50 pm 25. madamemayhem:people let me say that i believe that the biggest most dangerous terrorist organization on the planet is spelled OPEC. this group holds the world hostage with the oil supply. they can bring the world to its knees and a screeching halt on a whim. and who is in charge of opec, yeah a bunch of terrorist supporting, american hating, thugocracies who are using our money to pay people to destroy isreal and the u.s. the biggest supporter of terrorists is… the United Nations. they will always back the bad guys and knock the good guys, everytime. God forbid says the U.N. anyone step on the rights of hamas, hezbolah, the palestinians, the iranians, or any other god-forsaken a$$hole who wants to destroy america and isreal. why? because the u.n. hates america too. americans refuse to bend over for one world government and socialist garbage. we the people will never give our liberty and freedom to the U.N. and E.U. evict the u.n. and destroy opec and we might keep our country.
Dec 29, 2008 - 7:59 pm 26. Ira Zad:I agree wuth Moore, Mehran, and Winston above.
Kabud: althought you are right in saying what you say, but in fact the Russian faction(Nejad, Khamenei,’fundamentalists’) is one of 2 factions within the same ugly regime. The second faction is the European faction(Khatami, et al. ‘reformists’) who are at the feet of EU like a lapdog waiting to regain power in June 2009 elections.
So you are partially right on the assertion that Iran regime is a puppet of Russia right now, yes , it is right now. But US Democrats(Euro-Biden, and Euro-Kerry, et al.), and their European string-holders, EU, have a plan to try to change that: they want to try to re-install a European mullah stooge like Khatami back in power again in June 2009 elections there. And if that happens, we can all forget the ‘regime change’ idea for a very long time. It will be ‘grand bargain’ like you’ve never dreamt of it.
It is in this perilous context that the Israeli military action against Iran’s puppet, the terrorist organization Hamas, becomes very important right now. It seems Israel is the only ones who have any guts left in this war against Islamic Fascism right now. Let us hope that the real intention of Israel et al. is to finally drag the Iranian regime into the war by beating its stooge Hamas into a pulp. If that happens and Iran gets sucked into the war, there’s a chance for bombings of Iran to occur before Hussein Oh-Banana gets in on Jan. 20th.
I have said it before, and I say it again, no uprising from inside Iran will happen since the populace is petrified of the man-eating regime, zombi-fied or neutralized politically, or they are after their nose jobs and Caspian villa parties, and luxury Dubai trips to care too much about toppling the regime.
Any regime change, as such, should therefore be initiated from the outside by pounding the mullahs’ centers of power, and pounding them real hard, and pounding them now. Then and only then, we could count on Iranian people to join in by staging an uprising against a weakened enemy which is the Islamic Republic of Terror in Iran.
Let’s hope that opportunity will be provided to them this time around if this conflict with Hamas expands to include the mullah regime, too.
I doubt it, though, sooner or later the UN or US appeasers will try to talk Israle out of it for yet another half-hearted action.
We must eradicate and topple Hamas. Only then the Iranian regime will be enraged enough to react in a stupid way which may spark the final war.
As Michael says, “faster please”?
Dec 29, 2008 - 8:32 pm 27. carol:I agree with you 100%. Iran nuclear weapons, and Ach-mini-jihad must be taken out. His own people don’t want him there. It has to be done and if we wait, it will be worse. Right now, I don’t think it will be that hard. But the longer we wait…. kabloooooeeeee. nuke. millions of deaths.
Dec 29, 2008 - 8:36 pm 28. Ira Zad:Carol, yes, but it is not only Nejad that needs to be taken out, we must go after the whole regime, meaning taking out Khatami(EU stooge), Rafsanjani, etc. by assassination if possible. — Whatever happened to CIA and MI6 coups? They did it when they shouldn’t have in 1953 against poor Mossadegh, and now that they must do it, they are sitting on their behinds?? Pfui to that!–
Listen, we must eradicate the whole of the regime, Russian faction and European lap dogs alike. Complete and total regime destruction, anything short of that action will be back to the ‘pig with lipstick on’ scenario which is worst case scenario for Iran and the whole free world.
Right now, Nejad is useful since he fuels the ‘intensification of antagonisms’ both inside and outside of Iran. We need him to be there for he and his ‘fundamentalist’(Cino-Russian ties) kind bring the gift of efficiency(regime fall will occur quicker than if Euro-mullahs liek Khatami are back in) in removing the whole regime by oustide and/or inside forces.
There you have it!, but as I siad I doubt it will happen…sigh. The most likely thing that will happen though is US Dems and Europeans will root for Khatami to get back in in June 2009: hence the aforementioned “pig with lipstick on”. Sigh!
Unless…as I said above, Iran gets sucked into the current war between Israel and Hamas.
Dec 29, 2008 - 9:11 pm 29. Judith:Let’s see if it happens…
Mary above, you’re message about the commplicity of the Saudis as terror masters & financers of the jihadis/Wahabbi terrorist ideology needs to be exposed. Yet. the Saudis w/ their $500 billion yearly oil profit have already infiltrated the US, giving millions of dollars in endowment to our elite universities & the media. Hillary Clinton our next Secretary of State will no doubt be influenced to shove Saudi involvm’t in terror under the table given the conflict of interest presented by the huge sums of Saudi money given to her husband. In addition, the Bush administration under Condi Rice has already promised Saudi Arabia billions in American weapons( & a promise to help them build nucleur weapons) in an effort to displace Israel as its most important strategic ally in the region.
Dec 29, 2008 - 10:53 pm 30. Gary Rosen:“they were worse than the Nazis”
Of course C-fudd thinks the Japs were worse than the Nazis – they didn’t kill any Jews (not to minimize their savagery in Nanking etc. but only one thing matters to Fudd).
Dec 30, 2008 - 1:31 am 31. vivo:It’s all very simple:
Israel and their enemies will not stop fighting until they kill each other completely.
The idiots are the ones who support one or the other: let them do it alone.
Dec 30, 2008 - 5:23 am 32. Instapundit » Blog Archive » BRET STEPHENS: Hamas Knows One Big Thing. Michael Ledeen: The Battle of Gaza and the Real War….:[...] Michael Ledeen: The Battle of Gaza and the Real War. [...]
Dec 30, 2008 - 5:25 am 33. J. Lefler:“There is a disgusting conceit that underlies the “realist” position that negotiations will solve these problems: the conceit that tyrants will be easier to deal with than free peoples.”
In realpolitik terms, this is idealism, not realism and refers to the use of our ’soft’ power, power that is greatly lacking. Not because GWB has failed us, but rather that we have nothing to offer a people hoping to sacrifice themselves for a lifetime in paradise.
What we can offer and do provide to the tyrants is tremendous financial backing in the form of petrodollars – THIS MUST STOP!
We must develop our own set of resources – thankfully our country is rich in what we need but alas poor in the will to get it done.
Drill and develop. Now. No more talking.
Dec 30, 2008 - 5:52 am 34. djr:I’m no longer convinced that we (the west, and USA in particular) ought to enter into these “wars”; they are routinely egalitarian wars. If the mission wasn’t always (from the start): “the good people of x”, “rebuilding that” and “our brave men & women sacrificing…”, but instead crush the enemy with overwhelming power and technology as fast as you can w/o risking OUR men, I’d be all for it.
Expecting a proper self-interest execution of war is a little like expecting this rotting culture to elect an ideal man to office. It would be glitch.
Dec 30, 2008 - 5:56 am 35. Mary Madigan:9/11 was a brainstorm by one guy, Khalid Shekh Mohammed, who worked a conspiracy known only to about 20 people, done on only a 400K thousand budget, involving 4 airplanes.
No, according to the insurers who paid out billions in damages from the Sept. 11 attacks and the US treasury department, the Saudi government was responsible. However, the US government refused to bring the case to trial because of the Saudis ‘diplomatic immunity’.
Terrorist see Saudi Arabia as their helpers and their salvation. According to Gerald Posner’s While America slept, “When questioning a terrorist, CIA men fitted out as a fake Saudi jail chamber, where two Arab-Americans, now with Special Forces, pretended to be Saudi inquisitors, used drugs and threats to scare him into more confessions. When the terrorist was confronted by the false Saudis, his reaction was not fear, but utter relief. Happy to see them, he reeled off telephone numbers for a senior member of the royal family who would, said Zubaydah, “tell you what to do.” The man at the other end would be Prince Ahmed bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz, a Westernized nephew of King Fahd’s. The numbers proved valid.
The US government successfully dismantled several US-based Saudi charities for their involvement in the attacks, but the charities still exist under different names worldwide. Six years after the 9/11 attacks, Saudi Arabia has failed to pursue wealthy individuals identified as sending millions of dollars to al Qaeda. The undersecretary of the US treasury said: “If I could somehow snap my fingers and cut off the funding from one country, it would be Saudi Arabia,” .
Testifying in a United Nations war-crimes trial Ali Ahmed Ali Hamad, a former al-Qaeda commander, said that Saudi charities ‘helped the mujaheddin the most”
However, our government never accused, prosecuted or named any individual members of the Saudi government for their involvement in the thousands of Saudi sponsored attacks worldwide, including 9/11. They did, however, make a special effort to get bin Laden’s family out of the US after the attacks. The Bush family friend Prince Bandar’s wife gave money to to the 9/11 terrorists because, according to her testimony, she thought they were ill. Clinton has accepted millions in bribes from the Sauds.
According to CIA agent Robert Baer, “In 1997 a high-ranking member of the royal family coordinated a $100 million aid package for the Taliban. In Los Angeles two of the 9/11 hijackers met with a Saudi working for a company contracted to the Ministry of Defense. A raid on the Hamburg apartment of a suspected accomplice of the hijackers turned up the business card of a Saudi diplomat attached to the religious-affairs section of the embassy in Berlin. Most of the more than 650 al Qaeda prisoners being held at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba—”the worst of the worst,” according to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld—are rumored to be Saudis”.
Any people that felt their rule, their wrath, the incredible
inhumanity of their fanatic troops felt they were worse than the Nazis – and fortunately less efficient at butchery
Tell that to the millions of people who have died in the Sudan as a result of Wahhabi/al Qaeda influence and the resulting civil war.
few Americans feel we should not negotiate with Iran and instead proceed right into a war likely to be 4-5 times more ruinous to America than the Iraq mess.
Few Americans support a war against Iran, but even fewer support negotiations with a terror supporting state, because they know that this legitimizes that state. They also know that ‘negotiations’ mean that we’ll have to give in to Ahmadinejad’s extortion demands. They probably also know that, if we do pay him off, another extortionist state, like Syria, will pop up, saying “I hate America and I want nukes”, continuing the endless game of whack-a-mole. We don’t have the money to waste on this mess.
Russia is supporting Ahmadinejad’s nuclear dreams and Russia is very weak right now. We need to bypass Ahmadinejad, we need to publicly humiliate him by refusing to negotiate with him and we need to deal directly with the Russians.
Dec 30, 2008 - 6:49 am 36. Daily Blogger - Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 | Jack’s Newswatch:[...] Pajamas Media | Michael Ledeen:
Dec 30, 2008 - 6:57 am 37. kulthur:Russia is not very weak; Russia is only weak according to sentimental Western metrics, where military and strategy is barely thought of and where ultimate goals are improving quality of life. Russia’s population means nothing to its leaders and the military/counterintelligence bureaucracy that sits atop it like an octopus. This the West has trouble understanding.
Iran is one of its tentacles. Would we have as profound a problem with Iran if it was not being provided nuclear weapons by Russia? Or missile defense by Russia? Or military technology and diplomatic interference at the highest levels by Russia? Would Hezbollah (whose Lebanese “state” just received 10 Mig-29s) or Hamas be as effective and lethal?
If the answer to Iran is to be regime change, let it be through revolution. But let us not allow the beauty and convenience (for us) of an indigenous revolution against the mullahs to blind us into inaction vis a vis a nuclear-armed Iran. A nuclear Iran will be a grave destabilizing factor in a region of one- or two-bomb countries. It may be that this coordinated Asian strategy of forcing the US into regional war is at this point so well-developed that it will be inevitable. Surely the escalation and acceleration of “incidents” and “problems” cannot be mere coincidence or the result of “historical forces” like “globalization.”
Moreover, do you think the Iran-Russia-China axis – the Shanghai Cooperation Organization – would be weakened or strengthened by a nuclear Iran? Do you really believe, for example, that Islamic Iran threatens Russia or China? Why in heaven would Russia be providing nuclear arms to Iran, then? If you believe such a thing, ask yourself: Is it they who are stupid, or you who are stupid?
Dec 30, 2008 - 7:22 am 38. kabud:Russia is weak? This is something you overlooked:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction
9-11 operation was absolutely impossible without the top intelegence planning.
There is only one agency capable of such- KGB. They employ btw 2 and 3 MILLION specialists and have extensive experience in this field for over 90 years
naivety of Americans has no limits and will kill millions
Dec 30, 2008 - 7:25 am 39. Mary Madigan:The status of our nuclear stockpiles has always been a factor, but right now, Russia is economically weak.
There’s also the fact that, if we did bribe Iran to stop its nuclear program, or even if we bombed Iran, Russia would then turn around and encourage Syria/Venezuela/Bolivia/etc. to make nuclear threats.
During the cold war, we forced Russia to spend more money than they had on wargames. Now they’re trying to do the same thing to us. We shouldn’t fall into that trap.
Dec 30, 2008 - 7:41 am 40. Cold Fury » The real point:[...] Ledeen states it point-blank: There is a disgusting conceit that underlies the “realist” position that negotiations will [...]
Dec 30, 2008 - 8:09 am 41. Dr. Kenneth Noisewater:Israel is Charlie Brown, the “international community” is Lucy, and they keep trying to kick the football of “international legitimacy”… Time to wake up and realize that those that stand with Israel will do so, those that won’t don’t matter, and that the “international community” can take its so-called legitimacy and stick it someplace dark and stinky.
Dec 30, 2008 - 8:16 am 42. kulthur:I do not agree, Mary. First, Iran’s government cannot be bribed into compliance. This is not medieval Europe where manorial bankruptcy results in peasants with pitchforks at the castle gates. This is a police state – a counterintelligence state, an intelligence state, a junta, an oligarchy, a thugocracy. A “political” entity with no serious rivals – not because thousands of people do not oppose the regime, but because the regime is not constrained by morality or government mechanisms. Their ability to repress their populace is limited only by their available military and police forces. Iran is not a wealthy country; it isn’t as though Iran is California today and it is threatened by depressed oil prices with becoming… Iran tomorrow. It already *is* Iran.
Second of all, the European triumvirate of Germany, France and Britain have been offering them all manner of economic incentives for several years now; even those milquetoast nations are exasperated by Oriental duplicity. If they did publicly accept such offers, Iran would simply continue its nuclear and proxy projects and – backed by Russia and possibly China – fend off inspections and delay any accounting of their domestic capability indefinitely.
This is the problem with arms-control negotiations: they depend on the good faith of the parties. But there is no good faith in the Islamic Revolution; the Islamic Revolution believes in the Revolution, not in accomodating itself to some reasonable political compromise with moderate commercial states.
Dec 30, 2008 - 8:21 am 43. William:Michael Ledeen is right. The eschatology of Islam is to establish a world wide caliphate by force. There is no alternative, period. Any accomodation on their part will just be a smokescreen to hide their real intentions. That is what our leaders have to understand.
Dec 30, 2008 - 8:31 am 44. kabud:economy is for suckers
kremlin never wanted to develop its economy because in the light of a future nuclear war as they plan it: economies will be destroyed mostly, in Russia specifically
Don’t forget: weapons used by enemies of USA and Israel are mostly delivered by Russians
Bribing does not help:
Russians have a better leverage then bribing: they kill those who refuses to help them including US politicians if needed
Next war or terror attack could very likely be the one that will apply WMD and there is only one place where enemy can get those: union of Russia and China
Dec 30, 2008 - 8:39 am 45. kabud:To 35. Mary Madigan:
You may be interested in learning how bad is US defense .
I strongly advice to read Peter Vincent Pry books and his testimonies to Congress
He testified on EMP as well, not only he: last summer there was a hearing on EMP in Congress.
Check it out.
US defense is weak. It became a total consensus in US military:
in case of a global war with WMD USA will lose or surrender.
Russians have sufficiently more strategic nukes, their launchers are fortified against direct hits of our nukes,
they deploy brand new missiles on mobile launchers as well
They have enormous civil defense systems, bunkers, shelters
We have all the above to the opposite
And unfortunately US population was fooled on the subject of where threat is coming from
So if DC is hit with a small nuke- public will blame ARABS
Bottom line: war is a very likely event in the near future and USA will lose it, at least in the first phase,
Dec 30, 2008 - 8:51 am 46. KenB:until Americans will wake up from the shopping mall regime hypnosis
Not only is Gaza a mere front on a wider war, the entire Israeli/Palestinian dispute is such a front. I have often heard it said that peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis is a precondition to a wider Middle East peace. To the contrary, I think an end to dysfunction in the Middle East is a precondition to peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis. That’s bad news for Israelis.
Dec 30, 2008 - 9:30 am 47. Another war update « DaTechguy’s Blog:[...] Michael Ledeen states that the war has to be won in Iran not Gaza: They, and those who think the same applies to the [...]
Dec 30, 2008 - 10:05 am 48. Mary Madigan:I wasn’t talking about bribing anyone. We give the Palestinians millions of dollars in aid, and it doesn’t stop them from throwing bombs at Israel. Bribes don’t work.
I was just saying that we should talk to Russia directly instead of legitimizing and empowering Iran and Saudi Arabia, our in the global great game.
You may be interested in learning how bad is US defense
Yeah, right kabud, tell me about it. Your ‘information’ is about as reliable as DEBKA or the Weekly World News. Are the Russians responsible for 9/11, or was it bat boy?
Dec 30, 2008 - 10:21 am 49. Mary Madigan:oops – that should be “our pawns in the global great game”
Dec 30, 2008 - 10:22 am 50. dan:“So if DC is hit with a small nuke- public will blame ARABS”
this is the answer. no state like pakistan or iran would make itself such a hostile peacock in the public eye, no matter how successful the transnationals have been in stupifying and distracting the public. no matter how obtuse the US democrats and the social democrats of Europe appear to be with respect to defense, they still prize national – that is, their personal – wealth like anyone else. and they are not bunker regimes like the russian, chinese, arab dictators, persian mullahs, or pakistani mughal lords. even liberals will use the means at their disposal when sufficienly threatened.
no, this islamic militancy may be real – real down to the sura and the ancient wifebeating and cousinmarriage – but asiatic trustfund babies bribing muslim barbaroi cannot deploy nuclear weapons, cannot alter the strategic balance and put enough material and political pressure on the USA to force it to restructure its armed forces away from a conventional posture, or force it to liquidate a half-century of international political capital. no – this is a disinformation operation, however absurd that may seem. the purpose is to make the coming WMD strike on CONUS something against which the USA cannot politically respond.
“a generation of educators and leaders has been trained to make you believe that you are living in the peace time. false. the united states is in a state of undeclared total war.”
Dec 30, 2008 - 10:22 am 51. Ira Zad:Told you it won’t amount to anthing: Israel is already giving in to UN and offering Hamas a cease fire today!
Oh well, so much for misplaced hope that this time they will go for toppling Hamas.
And the Iranian regime is laughing in Tehran.
Dec 30, 2008 - 10:39 am 52. War with Hamas « Internet Scofflaw:[...] current war with Hamas, which was inevitable from the day the “cease-fire” began. And, Michael Ledeen places the war in context. (Via [...]
Dec 30, 2008 - 10:56 am 53. kabud:>47. Mary Madigan:
>I wasn’t talking about bribing anyone.
CIA is doing it in Africa and in Afghanistan. Read the news.
>We give the Palestinians millions of dollars in aid,
there is nothing more stupid, of course.
and it doesn’t stop them from throwing bombs at Israel.
>Bribes don’t work.
it works a little in Africa, in Angola and SA some marxists are bought and they work for us now.
>I was just saying that we should talk to Russia directly instead of >legitimizing and empowering Iran and Saudi Arabia, our in the global >great game.
Talking helps no one. Russians will use this as an opportunity to fool you even more. The only way to go is:
-no trade with china-russian alliance,
-no diplomatic recognition,
-expel all their agents,
-through away UN from US territory and all the enemy agents who work their
>Yeah, right kabud, tell me about it.
Well if i don’t you will never have any motivation to learn ANYTHING. You responce shows the typical level of shopping mall creature ignorance
>Your ‘information’ is about as reliable as DEBKA or the Weekly World News.
So you cant even READ Wikipedia? So what does it for you?
NEW YORK SLIME?
Just as i said before: you are an example of a perfect victim, a kind of a blind kitten with a learning disability.
It makes me very sad,
because there going to be millions Americans killed. And your attitude IS THE REASON WHY.
>Are the Russians responsible for 9/11, or was it bat boy?
of course they are. There are plenty of evidence to that.
google can help you of course if you can make yourself think outside of the box and `group think`
This is from the author of the article we here comment :
Consultant on terrorism
In the early 1980s, Ledeen appeared before the newly established Senate Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism, alongside former CIA director William Colby, author Claire Sterling and former Newsweek editor Arnaud de Borchgrave. Both Ledeen and de Borchgrave worked for the Center for Strategic and International Studies at Georgetown University at the time.[10] All four testified that they believed the Soviet Union had provided for material support, training and inspiration for various terrorist groupings.[11]
Ledeen was a strong proponent of the theories in the book The Terror Network written by Claire Sterling that held that the USSR was the source of much of the international terrorism in the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ledeen
Dec 30, 2008 - 11:17 am 54. Cybergeezer:So, following the Islamic thinking, when does the Koran promise to destroy itself for the good of its people and the assurance of its existence?……………………….Waiting!
Dec 30, 2008 - 4:21 pm 55. myth buster:I don’t care how fortified their silos are- no amount of depleted uranium will be sufficient to withstand a direct hit from a 475 kiloton nuclear warhead that will hit within 15 feet of its intended target, which is what our Tridents will accomplish. While the Russians were building bigger nukes, we made ours fly true, with a probability of a direct hit approaching 100%.
Dec 30, 2008 - 5:40 pm 56. Modern solutions:Israel’s ‘Crime Against Humanity’
By Chris Hedges, Truthdig. Posted December 16, 2008.
Israel’s siege of Gaza, largely unseen by the outside world because of Jerusalem’s refusal to allow humanitarian aid workers, reporters and photographers access to Gaza, rivals the most egregious crimes carried out at the height of apartheid by the South African regime. It comes close to the horrors visited on Sarajevo by the Bosnian Serbs. It has disturbing echoes of the Nazi ghettos of Lodz and Warsaw.
“This is a stain on what is left of Israeli morality,” I was told by Richard N. Veits, the former U.S. ambassador to Jordan who led a delegation from the U.S. Council for the National Interest Foundation to Gaza to meet Hamas leaders this past summer. “I am almost breathless discussing this subject. It is so myopic. Washington, of course, is a handmaiden to all this. The Israeli manipulation of a population in this manner is comparable to some of the crimes that took place against civilian populations fifty years ago.”
The U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, former Princeton University law professor Richard Falk, calls what Israel is doing to the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza “a crime against humanity.” Falk, who is Jewish, has condemned the collective punishment of the Palestinians in Gaza as “a flagrant and massive violation of international humanitarian law as laid down in Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.” He has asked for “the International Criminal Court to investigate the situation, and determine whether the Israeli civilian leaders and military commanders responsible for the Gaza siege should be indicted and prosecuted for violations of international criminal law.”
Falk, while condemning the rocket attacks by the militant group Hamas, which he points out are also criminal violations of international law, goes on to say that “such Palestinian behavior does not legalize Israel’s imposition of a collective punishment of a life- and health-threatening character on the people of Gaza, and should not distract the U.N. or international society from discharging their fundamental moral and legal duty to render protection to the Palestinian people.”
“It is an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe that each day poses the entire 1.5 million Gazans to an unspeakable ordeal, to a struggle to survive in terms of their health,” Falk said when I reached him by phone in California shortly before he left for Israel. “This is an increasingly precarious condition. A recent study reports that 46 percent of all Gazan children suffer from acute anemia. There are reports that the sonic booms associated with Israeli overflights have caused widespread deafness, especially among children. Gazan children need thousands of hearing aids. Malnutrition is extremely high in a number of different dimensions and affects 75 percent of Gazans. There are widespread mental disorders, especially among young people without the will to live. Over 50 percent of Gazan children under the age of 12 have been found to have no will to live.”
Gaza now spends 12 hours a day without power, which can be a death sentence to the severely ill in hospitals. There are few drugs and little medicine, including no cancer or cystic fibrosis medication. Hospitals have generators but often lack fuel. Medical equipment, including one of Gaza’s three CT scanners, has been destroyed by power surges and fluctuations. Medical staff cannot control the temperature of incubators for newborns. And Israel has revoked most exit visas, meaning some of those who need specialized care, including cancer patients and those in need of kidney dialysis, have died. Of the 230 Gazans estimated to have died last year because they were denied proper medical care, several spent their final hours at Israeli crossing points where they were refused entry into Israel. The statistics gathered on children—half of Gaza’s population is under the age of 17—are increasingly grim. About 45 percent of children in Gaza have iron deficiency from a lack of fruit and vegetables, and 18 percent have stunted growth.
“It is macabre,” Falk said. “I don’t know of anything that exactly fits this situation. People have been referring to the Warsaw ghetto as the nearest analog in modern times.”
“There is no structure of an occupation that endured for decades and involved this kind of oppressive circumstances,” the rapporteur added. “The magnitude, the deliberateness, the violations of international humanitarian law, the impact on the health, lives and survival and the overall conditions warrant the characterization of a crime against humanity. This occupation is the direct intention by the Israeli military and civilian authorities. They are responsible and should be held accountable.”
The point of this Israeli siege, ostensibly, is to break Hamas, the radical Islamic group that was elected to power in 2007. But Hamas has repeatedly proposed long-term truces with Israel and offered to negotiate a permanent truce. During the last cease-fire, established through Egyptian intermediaries in July, Hamas upheld the truce although Israel refused to ease the blockade. It was Israel that, on Nov. 4, initiated an armed attack that violated the truce and killed six Palestinians. It was only then that Hamas resumed firing rockets at Israel. Palestinians have launched more than 200 rockets on Israel since the latest round of violence began. There have been no Israeli casualties.
“This is a crime of survival,” Falk said of the rocket attacks. “Israel has put the Gazans in a set of circumstances where they either have to accept whatever is imposed on them or resist in any way available to them. That is a horrible dilemma to impose upon a people. This does not alleviate the Palestinians, and Gazans in particular, for accountability for doing these acts involving rocket fire, but it also imposes some responsibility on Israel for creating these circumstances.”
Israel seeks to break the will of the Palestinians to resist. The Israeli government has demonstrated little interest in diplomacy or a peaceful solution. The rapid expansion of Jewish settlements on the West Bank is an effort to thwart the possibility of a two-state solution by gobbling up vast tracts of Palestinian real estate. Israel also appears to want to thrust the impoverished Gaza Strip onto Egypt. There are now dozens of tunnels, the principal means for food and goods, connecting Gaza to Egypt. Israel permits the tunnels to operate, most likely as part of an effort to further cut Gaza off from Israel.
“Israel, all along, has not been prepared to enter into diplomatic process that gives the Palestinians a viable state,” Falk said. “They [the Israelis] feel time is on their side. They feel they can create enough facts on the ground so people will come to the conclusion a viable state cannot emerge.”
The use of terror and hunger to break a hostile population is one of the oldest forms of warfare. I watched the Bosnian Serbs employ the same tactic in Sarajevo. Those who orchestrate such sieges do not grasp the terrible rage born of long humiliation, indiscriminate violence and abuse. A father or a mother whose child dies because of a lack of vaccines or proper medical care does not forget. A boy whose ill grandmother dies while detained at an Israel checkpoint does not forget. All who endure humiliation, abuse and the murder of family members do not forget. This rage becomes a virus within those who, eventually, stumble out into the daylight. Is it any wonder that 71 percent of children interviewed at a school in Gaza recently said they wanted to be a “martyr”?
The Israelis in Gaza, like the American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, are foolishly breeding the next generation of militants and Islamic radicals. Jihadists, enraged by the injustices done by Israel and the United States, seek to carry out reciprocal acts of savagery, even at the cost of their own lives. The violence unleashed on Palestinian children will, one day, be the violence unleashed on Israeli children. This is the tragedy of Gaza. This is the tragedy of Israel.
http://www.alternet.org/audits/113143&title=Israel’s ‘Crime Against Humanity’
Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer prize-winning reporter, is a Senior Fellow at the Nation Institute. His latest book is Collateral Damage: America’s War Against Iraqi Civilians.
Dec 30, 2008 - 7:04 pm 57. Ran:Michael:
Jed Babbin’s post at Human Events ends with a serious warning:
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=30079
“The greatest danger we face is the emotional, cowardly denial of the facts. But when we accept the facts, and choose to act upon them, we follow the only path that can maintain our freedom.
The longer we deny the threat of state-sponsored terrorism, the harder and more costly it will be to end it. If we wait too long, it may be beyond our power to do so.”
Someone once asked me why “nations/leaders/people refuse to recognize evil, even when it’s a mortal threat?” Babbin’s answer, I believe, would accord well with yours.
Stepping one back, it’s a complicated picture: How we simultaneously tackle the terror masters and the fourth estate’s fifth column at home isn’t clear. Their “guy” has talked about diverting military funding to a national “civilian security force”. How we oppose that new tyranny and oppose the new socialist agenda and undo the cancer in the markets and then have the focus to support the Iranian people and to maintain the victory in Iraq and complete the mission in Afghanistan…
It can be done, all of it, but only if those at home who believe in Freedom get off their butts and take charge of their Congressional members.
Dec 30, 2008 - 9:00 pm 58. Lawrence:The whole tenor of this article is wrong.
Israel has not shown restraint. They were bombing Gaza at regular intervals throughout the ceasefire.
But this is not the point.
The point is that while Israel imprisons Gazans, they cannot expect not to be attacked. Since when should the prisoner be held responsible for the warden’s safety – especially when he is imprisoned illegally.
Israel does not have a right to exist on stolen land – no matter what the UN voted in the 40s. If some country – say the US – was to voluntarily give Jews New York State for their country, great. Or out of some guilt, Germany was to give Jews East Germany, great.
But shutting down the borders around Gaza, preventing shipping and air travel and goods – turning Gaza into a ghetto – and then complaining when homemade rockets kill eight people over 20 months, is not a justification for killing over 370 people in four days.
Dec 30, 2008 - 10:50 pm 59. kabud:>53. myth buster:
kremlin recently tested a new missile and is deploying that thing on mobile launchers
Also we are not sure about the real quantity of their nuclear weapons ready to be activated at any time
We never were able to inspect if they destroy them
USA did not test any ballistic missile for a long time by the way
As far as submarines i believe we have no more then 50 of them and i read that there are days when we have just a handful of subs patrolling out there
Also bare in mind that President Bush planned to reduce nuclear arsenals and president elct Obama announced in campaign that there going to be no new nuclear weapons development
and that his goal is to eliminate all nuclear weapons in the world
This means that kremlin as a constant violator of arms treaties will have nuclear weapons and USA will not. Simple as that.
By the way i am not sure if it was ever tested to attack something like Russian bunkers as the one at Yamantau Mountain
Again i strongly advice to read Peter Vincent Pry testimonies to Congress and his books.
Dec 31, 2008 - 6:15 am 60. Mary Madigan:The only way to go is:
-no trade with china-russian alliance
Well, if you want to start an unnecessary war in which millions would die, that’s the way to do it.
“Talking” to Russia wouldn’t necessarily involve negotiations. It would just mean interacting directly, instead of using proxies like Saudi Arabia and Iran.
There are plenty of evidence to that.
google can help you of course if you can make yourself think outside of the box and `group think`
As conspiracy theories go, yours is, at least, original.
Dec 31, 2008 - 8:04 am 61. chuck,:There are crazy nuts and there are smart nuts, who pursue their crazy visions with great cunning and skill. I think Tehran is the second kind, unfortunately.
Short term at least, Tehran may be thinking that Israel is worth more alive than dead. After all, it gives the mullahs an enemy to unite the Moslem world against, they themselves being the leaders. So Israel’s future is to be in this endless cat and mouse game, which is what’s going on in Gaza. Eventually, it will be of no further use to the Greater Iran, which is one way the game might end. Another might be that Israel gets tired of being the mouse. The question is whether it has the strength and will to end the game while it still can.
Dec 31, 2008 - 8:47 am 62. kabud:>56. Mary Madigan:
you or I or Washington has NO SAY in starting a war. War is already started long ago. Here, at home in New York on 9-11 we lost 3 thousand people
You proceed to propagate trade with enemy- you will see more people die.
When a gang is located by police force- they dont trade bullets with the gang: the ELIMINATE IT, understood?
No talking. You don’t get it. TALK is cheap. We’ve been fooled. It is time to act.
http://xyu.livejournal.com/745124.html
It is not a THEORY. It is an world organized crime syndicate, an iron triangle as it is called in US law enforcement jargon:
an alloy of corrupted polititiuans including many American bastards, organized crime and secret police of the
moscow-beijin-caracas-many_latin_american_marxist_regimes-ME-many_african_regimes
They are not going to play games they will attack USA with goal to kill you and most of US population
In my life time i had a chance to meet people who run things in the evil empire, some family members and acquaintances : from top leaders of USSR to defferent operatives doing intelligence work in ME, Africa, some realtives of highhest Chinese politicians
Belive me: they have a good working plan to destroy USA and they are as close as never to the final phase
Just check out sources on military capabilities of the evil union
Find facts, they are ALL IN OPEN SOURCES
Wake up from your consumer dream!
There going to be NO SHOPPING MALL NO MORE FOR YOU
Dec 31, 2008 - 8:50 am 63. Dodgeblogium » Muslims on Jews…downtown NYC:[...] Ledeen @ PJM and David Horowitz weight in on the subject as [...]
Dec 31, 2008 - 9:33 am 64. Ira Zad:The Israeli Elections Angle on the military campaign against Hamas. Both Livni and Netanyahu are trying to take credit if it is successful.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=98764
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-12-29-Israel_N.htm
The other reason the Israeli offensive will have to end soon is that it goes against the concerted effort to have a crash in the price of oil from $149 in July to almost $30 in December in order to put financial and economic pressure on Ahmadinejad so that he will lose in June 2009 elections and be replaced by a Euro-mullah like Khatami.
Dec 31, 2008 - 10:55 am 65. Jassem Othman - From the Middle East:This is all US under Obama and Israeli softies like Livni want: not a regime change in Iran, but just to get rid of Ahmadinejad for a Euro-mullah like Khatami. They figure they can make deals with Khatami.
Obviously both Hamas, the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine and Iranian Hezbollah, Lebanon. Their higher goal to “destruction of Israel” they are adopting the Mullahs ideology and Al-Qaeda method.
Jan 1, 2009 - 10:24 am 66. kourosh:They frequently threaten waves of martyrdom operations. Hamas and Islamic Jihad is have used teens as suicide bombers (terrible brainwash). They using journalists and innocent people as “human shields” to puts them at risk in order to embarrassment Israel at the world biggest criminal organizations “United Nations, Human Rights Watch”. Those terrorist groups are gets weapons, training, intelligence, and money from the Mullahs in return for doing their bidding in our region to be a surround borders Israel State.
Obviously those groups are receiving funding from Iran arm in the region “Hezbollah in Lebanon” and also they receive funds from Syrian regime, Iran regime, Saudi regime and Palestinian expatriates, and wealthy private benefactors in other rich Arab states. These groups are known to support families of suicide bombers after their deaths. The Islamic Jihad Movement is based in the Syrian capital, Damascus and Hamas in Gaza despite has much active offices in Damascus too.
I think those terrorist groups ALSO RECEIVE FUNDS from pro-evil that anti-US as Venezuela’s Chavies!!! Because there are warm relations between regimes that dominate oil extraction in the Middle East and which are pro-evil that anti-US as “Chavies, Ahmadinejad, Castro, Bashar Al-Asaad, Gaddafi Libya, Alexander Lukashenko, Kim Jong in North Korea, Mugabe Zimbabwe, wealthy private benefactors in Saudi Arabia unless the Saudi royal family themselves as well”.
All rogue States aforementioned are challenging the existing world order their blunt statements perceive the current world order as the personification of the United States Imperialism and Zionism, which is in the State of Israel.
Their stance against the Benevolent Imperialism, Capitalism and Zionism, is tangible common denominator of hatred toward the United States. Rudely they despise the United States influence in the Middle East and everywhere on the earth.
It would be irresponsible for any American policymaker and western to conclude that the Iranian threat had diminished.
All rogue States above and their criminal tools “the terrorist Moslems “, are strongly struggle to destroy your freedom and your life.
WAKE UP, PLEASE!!!
This is amazing that Israel and his friends in civilized nation allow a bunch of media supporting Islamist terrorists to spread propaganda against Israel. The fact is Israel can not and must not allow a terrorist organization exist in its border. Be Hezollah or Hamas or any other non-human Islamist Khomeinists Taliban terrorists. Israel must clearly state its objectives, and let the civilized world understand, she can’t tolerate terrorists in its border. Period. One more point, These days are Ashura period in Shi’it world, and Khomeinists in Iran will do anything to take advantage of religious gatherings against Israel. There will be huge demonstration in Lebanon, Iraq, and IRI occupied Iran. World must be alarmed about this issue. I also believe, Egypt must use the title Ayatolah for Hassan Nasrollah terrorist calling him Ayatolah Nasrollah, just to equate all Ayatollahs and Khomeinists to what they are, Islamist Terrorists. BTW, the actual title must be Ayatol-Saytan as Iranian use the title for Khomeinists in Iran.
Israel, simply must say terrorists are not human, and as such they have no human rights, and Hamas is not a government but a Khomeinists supported terrorist gang and can’t exist in Israel borders. In addition, Israel must prevent entry of any Hamas leader to Gaza, and clearly state Mashal is not welcomed in Gaza. Israel must constantly let the world know that all Khomeinists and gangs supported by IRI like Hamas and Hezbollahs are illegal organizations and should not exist no matter how many people are paid or tricked to support them. In another word, Islamic Democracy as is claim by Khomeinists in regards to Hamas, is not legitimate and is contradiction in words. Just look at the behaviour of IRI, and Hamas in territories they control, and see their behavior toward their own citizens restricting all possible freedoms.
Jan 4, 2009 - 8:53 am 67. mohammad:i love so much gaza
Jan 5, 2009 - 8:05 am 68. Ralph:you all can rationalize all this that you want. the only thing that makes sense is to vaporize intolerance. period. these disgusting mop top, dirty, toothless and undereducated low lives called muslims need to be removed altogether. muslims are not peaceful people. there is no appeasing these scumbags like chamberlin did with the nazis. anyone who has any empathy for these vile pigs needs to get their heads out of the sand. trouble is, the liberals in the is have been too successful at dumbing down the public. the us populace is too interested in wii, xbox, and beanie babies. what childish filth.
Jan 8, 2009 - 9:49 am 69. CHUCK:IF THERE WAS SOME WAY THAT THE ENTIRE NATION OF ISRAELI’S PLUS THEIR FOREIGN MINISTERS IN ALL THE WESTERN POWERS PLUS THE 13+ % OF US SENATORS…..PLUS SARKOZY….WELL YOU KNOW….COULD JUST BE MADE TO MAGICALLY DISAPPEAR FOREVER…..
THINK OF THE PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP THAT COULD COME FROM THE REMAINING COMPARATIVELY UN-MALEVOLANT, HONEST FOLK.
JUST “IMAGINE” AS JOHN LENNON SAID.
AH, BUT THEN THEY CONTROL EVERYTHING….AND THAT JUST COULDN’T HAPPEN, COULD IT?
Jan 8, 2009 - 11:15 pm