In the November issue of Esquire, two former high-ranking policy experts from the Bush Administration say the US has been gearing up for a war with Iran for years, despite claiming otherwise.
In the years after 9/11, Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann worked at the highest levels of the Bush administration as Middle East policy experts for the National Security Council. Mann conducted secret negotiations with Iran. Leverett traveled with Colin Powell and advised Condoleezza Rice. They each played crucial roles in formulating policy for the region leading up to the war in Iraq. But when they left the White House, they left with a growing sense of alarm — not only was the Bush administration headed straight for war with Iran, it had been set on this course for years. That was what people didn’t realize. It was just like Iraq, when the White House was so eager for war it couldn’t wait for the UN inspectors to leave. The steps have been many and steady and all in the same direction. And now things are getting much worse. We are getting closer and closer to the tripline, they say.
What comes through in the article is how Iran and other countries in the Middle East have been making overtures to the US for years, to solve the regions’ many problems and its differences with the United States. Everett and Mann were at the center of many of these efforts, but were continually rebuffed by the White House.
Read the full article here. Read also how they’ve been silenced.
Bat-shit crazy bastards just want war. I can’t figure out if they are just paranoid to the extreme, march to orders from “the lobby”, or are wrapped up in the end of times hocus pocus. Perhaps a combination of all three.
I hope we get through Bush’s term without the war widening, but the Kurds are about to get an ass-whuppin’ from the Turks which will not bode well for our PKK minions operating in Iran.
When Hillary is sworn in and she starts giving speeches at the AEI I’ll know it’s time to seek greener hills….
erinyes,
With global warming, there will be no more ‘greener hills.’ We are stuck and must do what we can to change the culture and ideology.
“Apocalypse Now” wasn’t just a movie to these people. It was a motto to live by.
The “Unitary President” must be stopped. Ms. Pelosi has to be convinced that impeachment MUST be put back on the table.
Chris Dodd has taken the first step. A hold. That must be the line that we hold to. And we must start drawing the other lines. Non-negotiable ones.
The Iranian government is crazy. I’m not sure it’s as crazy as ours. But their people are reasonable. Like 70% of American’s.
Indict. Impeach. Incarcerate! That iasthe cure. “Catch and release” didn’t work with Nixon, Reagon, or Bush I. Bush II, and his enabler’s, need to be tried, convicted, and sent to prison. End of story.
‘Nuff said…
I found this article earlier this week and was pretty hopped up about it until you posted the Naomi Wolf piece. I have watched just about all of the Wolf pieces on Youtube and I don’t know whether to shit or go blind.
How can one assess what she says from a more objective position, or is SHE the objective position? I guess if another election manages to just–slip out of our hands, then we’ll know that vast right wing conspiracies are alive and well–and then I will have to start thinking about the WTC in a different light.
And as far as Hillary–Just Say No to Dynasty!
That poor little post turtle in the Oval Office talks about his legacy and has no idea what kind a legacy he could have had.
DC #3, I’m not sure what it is about Naomi Wolf that makes you want to shit or go blind – you probably have seen a lot more of her than I have. Just based on the video before this posting – which featured her lecturing on “End of America” at U of Washington – everything she said made lots of sense to me, as it’s based on direct historic parallel. She filled in a lot of gaps in my thinking on the subject.
And so I don’t get your question about objective position, etc.
montag #4, Occupation: Fireman.
I’ve read the occasional article and at least one op-ed (other than Leverett’s) regarding Iran reaching out to and being rebuffed by this administration. My anger that these articles were never front page and received only passing comments by the usual pundits turned into a resignation that this issue, along with so many others, was to be relegated to the history books for others to pass judgment on. With a defeatist attitude, I just count the days until January 20, 2009 and pray that these morons aren’t afforded any more opportunities to create more catastrophic blunders.
However, with all the recent rumblings regarding Iran, and after reading the complete Esquire article, I am once again filled with dread. Let’s hope those that consider themselves journalists do their jobs this time around or let them take their rightful place next to the anti-christs who are the senior members of this administration.
c u n d g,
With climate change, there will be (in theory) some browner, greener, warmer, and colder hills. I believe there will be significant change, which will mean food shortages, beach front property being created, new challenges, etc. Not all doom and gloom, but I could be wrong.
BTW, most fishermen down here subscribe to “fillet and release”.
Thanks for the glass-half-full outlook, erineyes.
I’m Russian and Ukrainian. We have a rather different outlook on life. I joke about it, calling it, “Waiting for the German’s.”
Some poeple look at a glass as half-full.
Others, half-empty.
I look at the glass and say, “Hey, who drank half of my vodka?!?”
How about “gut and release?” I could live with that. Or, is that torure? I guess it is… Too bad!