Exclusive: By enforcing a “group think” calling Iran the chief sponsor of terrorism, Official Washington’s neocons are maneuvering the Trump administration into conforming with Israeli (and Saudi) desires, reports Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
President Trump’s foreign policy is sliding toward neoconservative orthodoxy on the Middle East because White House insiders are aligning with Israeli-Saudi interests and vowing undying hostility toward Iran, which they falsely insist is the chief sponsor of terrorism.
White House adviser Jared Kushner, who is also President Trump’s son-in-law.
I’m told that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, privately at least, recognizes that Saudi Arabia and its Sunni-led Gulf state allies are the prime backers of Al Qaeda and Islamic State – with Iran actually fighting these major terror groups – but close advisers to President Trump, including son-in-law Jared Kushner and National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, appear wedded to Official Washington’s “group think” blaming Iran for pretty much everything that’s gone wrong in the region.
This “group think” requires that everyone who wants to be taken seriously in Official Washington must repeat the mantra that “Iran is the principal sponsor of terrorism.” The reason is that Washington’s establishment is locked into saying just about whatever the extremely rich Saudis and the extremely influential Israelis tell it to say. Trump himself has labeled Iran “#1 in terror.”
Ironically, Flynn – when he was director of the Defense Intelligence Agency – oversaw an insightful 2012 analysis that accurately traced the rise of the vicious Sunni jihadist movement in Syria to support from the Gulf states and to the Obama administration’s policies. The report explicitly warned of the possibility of “an Islamic State,” which indeed emerged in 2014 with high-profile decapitations of U.S. hostages.
In a 2015 interview, Flynn expanded on the analysis, saying that the Obama administration and its allies made a “willful decision” to back what the report called the creation of “a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in Eastern Syria” with the goal of pressuring or overthrowing the Syrian government. Flynn said the intelligence on this extraordinary point “was very clear.”
Yet, now Flynn – like almost everyone else in Official Washington — focuses his rage at Iran for the mess in the Middle East.
This blame-Iran “group think” has remarkable similarities to the one that rationalized the disastrous war in Iraq, i.e., that Saddam Hussein was in cahoots with Al Qaeda and was likely to give the terrorists his hidden WMDs. That fake analysis ignored the fact that the secular Hussein was a sworn enemy of Al Qaeda’s fundamentalists and they hated him, too.
So, although the Saddam-allied-with-Al-Qaeda lie was obvious to anyone who knew anything about Middle East politics, it was repeated endlessly by supposedly in-the-know Washington insiders to justify President George W. Bush’s bloody invasion of Iraq, which killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis along with nearly 4,500 U.S. soldiers and spread chaos across the strategic region.
The Iran-Terror Deception
Now, we see a similar self-deception about which country is the principal sponsor for terrorism and other troubles. The truth is that Iran as a Shiite-governed nation is on the opposite side of the region’s sectarian divide from Al Qaeda and Islamic State, the two major Sunni terror groups that have taken aim at the United States and Europe.
Journalist James Foley shortly before he was executed by an Islamic State operative in August 2014.
Indeed, Iran has committed troops to neighboring Iraq and Syria to help fight Al Qaeda and Islamic State. Yet, the misguided consensus citing Iran as the principal sponsor of terrorism continues, leading the Trump administration off into a new round of misjudgments.
For instance, Trump received an embarrassing slap-down from the U.S. judiciary because he excluded Saudi Arabia and other countries that actually have produced terrorists who have struck the United States, including the 9/11 hijackers, from his seven-Muslim-nation travel ban.
Some Trump officials may realize the ugly reality about these left-off-the-list “allies” and their support for Al Qaeda and Islamic State but still lie anyway for political convenience. Others may have repeated the lie so often that they have come to believe it.
In the case of Kushner, The New York Times reported on Friday that he has bought into a strategy for negotiating an Israel-Palestine peace agreement that relies on the good offices of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other Sunni Arab states.
It then follows that since Saudi Arabia and Israel are enthusiastic backers of the Iran-is-the-principal-sponsor-of-terrorism line, Kushner may see it as a prerequisite for securing their cooperation.
However, whether President Trump and his team keep telling this lie or not, the chances for the novice Kushner negotiating a genuine Israel-Palestine peace deal are slim to none. A powerful and arrogant Israel is not likely to make any meaningful concessions to the weak and divided Palestinians.
What might be possible is for Saudi Arabia, other Sunni-led states and Israel to gang up on the vulnerable Palestinians and subjugate them onto some undesirable land inside “Greater Israel,” what might be called the “give-them-three-rocks-and-a-potty-john plan.”
But such an unjust resolution of the longstanding Palestinian issue is not likely to be a long-term solution. Israel’s continued treatment of the Palestinians as an oppressed indigenous population will remain before the world’s conscience, much as South African apartheid did.
Son-in-Law’s Failure
So, Ivanka Trump’s husband will face near-certain failure in his “peace” initiative, but – before that becomes fully apparent – he could lead the young administration off in some harmful directions, bringing it back into line with Official Washington neoconservative orthodoxy on the Mideast.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the United Nations in 2012, drawing his own “red line” on how far he will let Iran go in refining nuclear fuel.
That was apparent in The New York Times’ front-page article outlining Kushner’s plan. According to Times’ correspondents Peter Baker and Mark Landler, the plan “mirrors the thinking of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who will visit the United States next week, and would build on his de facto alignment with Sunni Muslim countries in trying to counter the rise of Shiite-led Iran.”
It’s interesting that the Times is finally acknowledging the reality of an Israeli-Saudi alliance, something that we have been describing at Consortiumnews.com since 2013.
The Times rationalizes this “de facto alignment” as necessary to counter “Iranian hegemony in the region,” another wild exaggeration. “Hegemony” refers to dominance or control and Iran exercises no such power over the Mideast where its influence is limited to alliances with the embattled governments in Syria and Iraq and with Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon and to a very small degree the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
How that measures up to Iran’s “hegemony” – especially coming from U.S. mainstream journalists who would scream if the word were applied to the United States – is something only a neocon could understand. The Times article also relies on neocon think tanks and neocon thinkers for encouraging words about Kushner’s plan.
“There are some quite interesting ideas circulating on the potential for U.S.-Israeli-Arab discussions on regional security in which Israeli-Palestinian issues would play a significant role,” said Robert Satloff, the executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “I don’t know if this is going to ripen by next week, but this stuff is out there.”
Kushner’s approach is called the “outside-in” strategy aiming to reach agreement with the surrounding Sunni Arab states and then using that leverage to force the Palestinians to go along.
“The logic of outside-in is that because the Palestinians are so weak and divided — and because there’s a new, tacit relationship between the Sunni Arabs and Israel — there’s the hope the Arabs would be prepared to do more,” said Dennis B. Ross, a neocon operative who has served as a Middle East negotiator for several presidents. Ross is a well-known anti-Iran hawk who co-founded United Against Nuclear Iran.
Ready for Netanyahu
The Times also reported that Trump and Kushner had a White House dinner with casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who has mused about the possibility of dropping a nuclear bomb on Iran. Adelson also is a major backer of Netanyahu.
Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson.
Trump himself has known Netanyahu for many years. I’m told the relationship dates back to Netanyahu’s days as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations in the mid-1980s.
So, it’s perhaps not surprising that Trump would send out NSC advisor Flynn to put Iran “on notice” for conducting some conventional ballistic missile tests and that Trump would include Iran on his travel ban.
Trump also has been consulting with Sunni leaders in the Middle East, including Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Times reported. None of those countries were included in Trump’s executive order restricting travel from the seven other mostly Muslim countries.
With his son-in-law out-front, Trump’s approach to the Middle East is shaping up as similar to previous administrations, catering to Israel and Saudi Arabia even to the extent of wholesale lying to the American people about who is the main backer of terrorism.
Trump also may be isolating his new Secretary of State as Tillerson apparently looks to more realist options and fights to limit neocon influences in making U.S. foreign policy. But Tillerson is facing a challenge in staffing the State Department without turning to veterans of past administrations with close ties to the neocons.
The hard truth is that the neocons and their liberal-interventionist cohorts have been so successful in purging contrarian thinkers from the foreign policy establishment that there aren’t many independent-minded people left with recent management experience at the State Department.
Now, with the neocons having found a backdoor into the Trump administration via son-in-law Kushner, the prospects for a sharp break with the long reign of disastrous neocon policies in the Middle East have grown dimmer.
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com).
History forgotten repeats itself perpetually: Iran, Chile, Venezuela, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, Honduras, Philippines, Vietnam, Iraq, Syria, Libya, just to name a few.
Ukraine….
Feb 3, 2017 How Trump Filled The Swamp
With promises to “drain the swamp!” still ringing in our ears, we have watched Trump appoint nothing but Goldman banksters, Soros stooges, neocon war hawks and police state zealots to head his cabinet.
https://youtu.be/cs0BfPDvUQg
I just came back to this website to reread the important article by Morgan Strong and always find new comments interesting. I know re 911 Truth that many Americans do express doubt about the official theory but with so many horrendous events in subsequent years, there’s not much talk about it, is what I mean, Michael. I sent my pile of books about the holes in the official story to the Democracy Center library in Cambridge MA so others could read them. So many folks still accepting the JFK Oswald assassination theory over 50 years later, I even heard Chris Matthews on Hardball stating it and you’d think he knew better. I fully agree with the comment that there is something evil on this earth. But now, what do we do? Just keep on pushing back, all we can. Deep State is attempting to relaunch the Syrian War now, note the AI report.
Article of interest at link below:
————————————————————–
“Trump Wars”
By Stephen Lendman
Global Research, February 13, 2017
http://www.globalresearch.ca/trump-wars/5574595
Well, if you read the decision from the 9th circuit, you know this is wrong. The decision had nothing to do with who was on the ban, solely how the ban was carried out and it’s specific “Muslim” component ( as selective as it was ).
“For instance, Trump received an embarrassing slap-down from the U.S. judiciary because he excluded Saudi Arabia and other countries that actually have produced terrorists who have struck the United States, including the 9/11 hijackers, from his seven-Muslim-nation travel ban.”
However, point made in the article. We are headed for major disaster with a president who is insecure about his manhood and who rewards pandering presences around him. It will be very very easy to manipulate him by simply equating him as “the big shot” with”neo” con/lib backed military excursions. It will be like manipulating a child…easy for these established interests. I had some hope for Flynn and maybe a shard for Kushner. Wrong! I should have known…
BTW: I’m still curious..and it’s reared it’s ugly head again…What were the contacts between the Trump organization and Russia prior to the ELECTION? We now know Flynn lied about contacts afterwards but I’m looking for collusion during the election. I’m also wondering about Tulsi Gabbard and her rather odd maneuvers prior and after. (the “radical Islamic Terrorism” bugaboo, being one of the first to meet with Trump and certainly able to gain possession of DNC email traffic and docs and her possibly radical Hindu ties). The whole “Russia did it” narrative could be debunked once and for all.
And this is all pure speculation. I could be totally wrong, but nobody has seriously looked into it, have they?
I believe: Something Is Very Evil, and at work on our world. I also believe, it controls the centers of power, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely…”
See more at link below:
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2016/11/something-is-very-evil.html
Last night I posted a response to Jessica, who expressed doubt that the 911 truth movement would be taken seriously because the mainstream media had stopped covering it and people like Noam Chomsky had argued against it. My remarks were posted here with the admonition that they were still under review, and my post was removed overnight. Here I try again to make my main point that the hard science that convinces me (a neuroscientist Ph.D. and professor emeritus of the University of Illinois with more than 130 publications in top journals including Science Magazine) that fire has never before caused collapse into its own footprint at free-fall acceleration of any steel-girded building, as argued by the “official” account of the 9/11 event. Such collapses however have occurred routinely as a result of explosive controlled demolition, and that is the only way that the collapses on 9/11 could have occurred. This conclusion is supported by many additional findings including molten iron pouring down the sides of the towers during their collapse and running in the basement levels of the towers and Building 7 for many weeks after the event, and the discoveries of iron microspheres and nano-thermite (which demonstrate the presence of the thermitic explosives used for controlled demolitions) found in the huge volume of dust that coated the entire area. Also compelling is the foreknowledge of the police who warned pedestrians that WTC 7 would collapse well in advance of its actual collapse. The complete scientific case for controlled demolition is made beautifully on AE911truth.org. One will also note that Noam Chomsky has never addressed any of these specific findings in his critiques of controlled demolition. Despite Jessica’s pessimism, the 911truth movement is alive, well and growing. It could eventually become the trigger that ends once and for all the horror of the neocon wars in the middle east.
I’m afraid this is correct, but still hold out limited hope that the past experiences of Flynn, Tillerson and Trump will prevent them from the worst excesses on Iran and the resulting failure of policy and resulting threat of nuclear war. It is even possible that we have already survived longer than we would have survived had the harpy started her effort for a no-fly zone in Syria particularly since Aleppo might still have been a military and propaganda running sore. The worst aspect of prospects for the future is that even the one-time anti-war, anti-fascist left has been colonised by neocon cynics paid for by the massive soros operations and I see no long-term way out other than populist wins or wins by ex-Communists untainted by the yankee propaganda structure in former yankee vassal states
And Still More Info Below:
“The Evidence of the Planning of Wars against Countries by Powerful War Criminals…”
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2016/10/the-evidence-of-planning-of-wars.html
I believe there is: “The Evidence of a Powerful Conspiracy to Destroy Countries”
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2016/02/the-evidence-of-powerful-conspiracy-to.html
Absolutely agree with you, Sababu, that these people must be resisted with an active movement, not just on the internet. It is difficult, given our supine press, to get out any truths but we must get a resistance movement going just as was done in Vietnam days. For too long since the Bush administration invasion of Iraq and the damn Patriot Act turning people into sheeple, there’s been no concerted movement. Protests to Trump admin have focused only on social and immigrant issues, overlooking the fact that the horrific ME neocon wars have been the reason for the immigrant issues. But
the press has given coverage to protests because of opposition to Trump, and it’s overdue to publicly attack the neocons for the nightmares they have caused.
Michael Gabriel, the press has gone along with the official 911 story, and the truth movement doesn’t get much attention as years pass. Even Noam Chomsky disregards the evidence of controlled demolition. We do remember the Saudis who were flown out of the US by the Bush administration, which was certainly suspicious. There are many unanswered questions, and so many Americans just can’t be bothered. Why was Saudi Arabia omitted from Trump’s list of banned countries, when they are the chief sponsors of terrorism? And, what is the connection between Israel and the Saudis if it isn’t to keep terrorism and war continuing in the Middle East?
I totally agree with you observations and understandings.
I have no malice against any nation a along as they are remaining within
their own bounds.
One of the great missing links in the information chain of this discussion is, the
history of US Intel operations within Iran. Our Intelligence apparatuses created these
problems long ago through numerous interventions and regime changes.
People should study this history.
Former USMC
I’ve read all of the comments down to Vesuvius at 7:42 AM. I’m struck by the basic agreement that seems to exist regarding who are the bad guys. However, I am also surprised that I did not see any reference to the most horrendous of all, the cooperation between Israel, Saudi Arabia and the military/evangelical/petroboss complex here in the US to bring down the twin towers and building 7 using explosive controlled demolition, thus creating the neocon pretext to bring the full might of the US military to bear on the infamous seven contemptable nations.
read this at article link below:
———————————————————-
Saudi Prince Honored By CIA For His Anti-Terrorism Efforts
Posted on February 12, 2017 by Carol Adl
Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Naif Abdulaziz Al-Saud has received an award from the CIA for his contribution to the fight against terrorism.
No it’s not April 1st yet and it isn’t fake new…. the Crown Prince, who is Saudi Arabia’s deputy premier and interior minister, really was presented with the George Tenet award by CIA Director Mike Pompeo in Riyadh on Friday….
[read more at link below]
http://yournewswire.com/saudi-prince-honored-by-cia-for-his-anti-terrorism-efforts/
Who needs a back-door to the White House, now in the possession of Israel-Firster Donald Trump? Not Bibi Netanyahu. Nor U.S. Neocons. Obama gave some small resistance, but in effect Israel is running U.S.A. ever since the tragic U.S.S. Liberty affair in 1967.
The Client State in ME has become Master, the tail is wagging the dog.
And this will cost American taxpayers more dearly than ever Before.
Iran is the enemy of Saudi Arabia and the enemy of Israel. Both Saudi Arabia and Israel are allies of the US. Consequently the US is exposed to strong pressure to pursue hostile policies toward Iran.
Consequently if Iran wishes to escape the wrath of the US, it would be well advised to moderate its conflict with Saudi Arabia or with Israel or with both.
Iran’s conflict with Saudi Arabia reflects rivalry between the two countries for hegemony in the Middle East.
Iran’s conflict with Israel is principally due to Iran’s support for Israel’s archenemies Hamas and Hizballah.
Therefore Iran’s conflicts with both Saudi Arabia and Israel are the result of Iran’s meddling in the internal politics of other Middle Eastern countries.
If Iran wants peace it should stop its aggressive foreign policies.
Iran’s aggressive foreign policies?
You mean like overthrowing elected leaders throughout the region? Wait, that was the US…
You mean like funding headchopping Islamist terrorists to attack secular regimes to overthrow them? Wait, that’s Saudi Arabia, Quatar, and the UAE….
You mean bombing its neigbors and blockading food imports leading to literally millions of children currently being on the edge of starvation? Oh, wait, that is Saudi Arabia again, with US help…
You mean attacking their neighbors, and occupying their land for decades on end? Wait, that’s Israel….
You must mean providing aid to elected governments to fight headchopping foreign run assaults on their population, like in Syria, or providing (widely popular) assistance to those fighting off foreign invasions, such as their assistance to the groups that repelled the IDF’s invasion of Lebanon. Those bits of aid to people DEFENDING themselves from foreign invaders must be what you call “aggression” in your version of reality….
I get the feeling I’m looking at a mannequin or a cyborg!
There is something about that photo (click on it to enlarge) of Kushner that I find very unsettling. Perhaps it is partly because it looks so posed in a Fortune 500 “dress for success” way (except for the watch tease). Also, his eyes seem to have the vacant, middle-distance look often seen with sociopaths/psychopaths.
You are correct. Specifically, Jared Kushner suffers from megalomania(in its strict sense) and the delusion(strict sense) that he possesses extraordinary abilities. Read about how Jared fell flat on his face in his attempt to purchase the building on Fifth Avenue and you will see both these mental illnesses displayed in their ludicrous glory. Both his religion and his(inherited) wealth convince him he is better than other people giving him the sense he has the right to rule, yet his extremist intolerance for disagreement show he is a latent demagogue. All these qualities are merely absurd absent acsess to political power. He has attained this not by accomplishment but by marriage, and that alloyed with his youth, might portend a brutal slapdown. On a note of comedic absurdity Jared Kushner, in his marriage to Ms. Trump, displays the typical orthodox jewish male’s delirious obsession with the “shiksa”. Self-hatred(won’t marry a jewish girl) and feelings(well founded) of inadequacy?
Very interesting.
Regarding “comedic absurdity”, I have long been a fan of the “Theater of the Absurd”.
This article is a scream to the Palestinians to get creative…. to take some initiative like refusing violence as a tool of resistance as it distances political support, empowers Israel, like initiating a campaign for equality inside Israel to advance discussion of two state options or like agreeing to put the collective interest before individual ones.
Of course, the vast majority of Palestinians have been resisting nonviolently for a couple decades now, with protests literally happening weekly in many of their villages. There is a great film, Five Broken Cameras, that documents one village’s nonviolent struggle through the years.
Unfortunately, nonviolence’s effectiveness lies in that it affects the moral conscience of the oppressor. It thus is only effective if the oppressor has a conscience.
I am shocked that there is gambling going on in here. It is like Casablanca with trump in the Whitehouse. So Bibi is in fact running our foreign policy in the Middle East. That’s really encouraging, seeing that most of the leaders of the “free World”, consider him a liar who cannot be trusted on anything. And trump’s son-in-law is sharing a bed with Bibi? Man we can count on a coherent, fair and successful policy now. Why, who would think that these movers and shakers can’t be expected to make peace rather than explode a nuclear weapon. And it will probably be fueled by our own plutonium to boot. Good job your Orangeness, thanks State Department and the neo-cons who seem to have taken it over. The next 4 years should be really peaceful. NOT.
Well, the future doesn’t look any brighter that is for certain. I think Mr. Kushner is more concerned with Chinese Banking money and alliances with the .1% (Of China). This is definitely forward looking and there have been reports of his private meetings over the last 2 or 3 months with some of the most favored of Chinese billionaires. This benefits Trump and his Administration and of course Kushner .himself If Kushner, who married Trump’s daughter after she converted to Judaism, has other hidden interests and alliances that is also forward looking. I see the One China Policy is back on and I expect no more provocative statements regarding the South China Sea from Trump’s Secretary of State. Facts on the ground are that Israel has already annexed the West Bank and the Golan and the Gaza will never be given autonomy (Control of it’s borders, port or mineral resources). The Palestinians are completely marginalizeed except by segments of the EU. . I agree this is disappointing and that Trump appears to be taking on a business as usual foreign policy but this was clearly a possibility when his supporters cast their ballots. . Oddly enough, like Obama he appears to have either overestimated his potential to enact change or has misrepresented himself to get elected. . I am of the opinion that if Hillary Clinton had been elected the process that we see unfolding in the Middle East would already be i the process of execution and that she would have full support of the Senate and the House. Maybe this is ” As good as it gets”.
“Here again we find the paw prints of Henry Kissinger.”
Geopolitical analyst F. William Engdahl on the Kate Dalley Radio show
(LISTEN minutes 24:00-39:30)
https://soundcloud.com/user-457491508/0203-william-engdahl-who-controls-trump
“One of the most disturbing attributes of the neoconservatives is their willingness to subordinate the United States’ national interests to those of Israel. To be sure, the attempt is frequently made to demonstrate that the two nations’ interests are identical, but a careful analysis of the impact of Israel’s domestic and foreign policies can only conclude that the relationship has been detrimental to the United States […]
“It is now obvious that the neocons have been marketing their agenda under deceptive labels and meticulously planning their takeover of the U.S. foreign policy apparatus to advance their Middle Eastern program. […] American interests have been consistently betrayed by politicians and government officials who have fought to protect Israel at all costs. Mearsheimer and Walt reveal, inter alia, that Henry Kissinger, while national security adviser and secretary of state between 1969 and 1977, might have been one of the first neocons in deed if not in name. Kissinger, who prefers to describe himself as a ‘realist,’ reportedly took it upon himself to defend Israeli positions even when those positions were in no way linked to American interests in the region.
“In 1972, Kissinger and Nixon ceded to Israel a veto over any peace proposals that Washington might be considering in dealing with the Arab states, basically accepting the principle that Tel Aviv would call all the shots in the region without regard to American interests. In October 1973, the same duo airlifted military supplies to Israel during the Yom Kippur War to the tune of $2.2 billion in impromptu aid, leading to the Arab oil embargo and its catastrophic impact on the U.S. economy, which amounted to nearly $50 billion in 1974 alone (equivalent to $140 billion in 2000 dollars).
“In late October 1973 Kissinger was sent to Moscow to negotiate with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev to pursue a comprehensive peace process for the Middle East, but he ignored Nixon’s instructions and pressed instead for a cease-fire that left Israel dominant and destroyed any chance for a multilateral peace effort. According to Mearsheimer and Walt, ‘The American-compiled minutes of the three meetings that Kissinger attended with Brezhnev unequivocally show that he accurately and repeatedly represented Israeli interests to Moscow, almost totally contrary to Nixon’s preferences.’ When the UN Security Council subsequently passed a cease-fire resolution, Kissinger allowed the Israelis to ignore it for 12 hours so they could consolidate their gains.
“In 1975, while secretary of state, Kissinger signed a memorandum of understanding that pledged the U.S. to provide for Israel’s oil needs in the event of a crisis and to finance and stock a strategic reserve. He also agreed that Washington would not ‘recognize or negotiate with’ the PLO as long as the group refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist. This made it impossible to talk to the only group that represented the aspirations of most Palestinians, a dialogue that the Israelis wished to derail but which would have served America’s interests. Kissinger’s last year as secretary of state also saw Israel’s aid from the U.S. skyrocket from $1.9 billion in 1975 to $6.29 billion for 1976.
“One would think that Kissinger’s disastrous handling of Vietnam would have been enough for any one man, but he is clearly seeking to leave his mark on the Middle East as well. He continues to be a troubling presence in wars both ongoing and intended. Even though he rarely mentions Israel, preferring to couch his arguments in terms of U.S. national interests, the positions he takes would undoubtedly be welcome in Tel Aviv […]
“[Kissinger] is the principal architect of the new policy to create a regional alliance of Arab states opposed to Iran while at the same time increasing direct pressure on the government in Tehran. […] he is the principal architect of the new policy to create a regional alliance of Arab states opposed to Iran while at the same time increasing direct pressure on the government in Tehran. […] He argues that simplifying the equation by viewing Iran as a strategic threat to the Middle East in general and to Arab dictatorships such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt in particular narrows the range of options and protects all U.S. allies in the region.”
Henry Kissinger: Realist, or Neocon?
By Philip Giraldi
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/giraldi.php?articleid=11586
I would like to hear more details on this “inside-out” policy, what it means, what it projects, as well as clarification of the following remark by Mr. Parry:
“What might be possible is for Saudi Arabia, other Sunni-led states, and Israel to gang up on the vulnerable Palestinians and subjugate them onto some undesirable land inside ‘Greater Israel,’ what might be called ‘give them three rocks and a potty john plan’.”
Mr. Parry, you called Hezbollah militant. I wonder why? Merriam-Webster dictionary defines militant as,
“Having or showing a desire or willingness to use strong, extreme, and sometimes forceful methods to achieve something.”
The United States and most of the western world also labels Hezbollah as terrorist organization. Again, Merriam-Webster dictionary defines terrorism as
“the use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal.”
By these definitions Hezbollah is neither militant nor terrorist. They are just a resistance movement. As a matter of fact both terms apply, more appropriately, to the “only democracy” and the “most moral army” in the middle east. I am speaking, of course, of Israel. These terms also apply to the “exceptional nation,” i.e., the United States. Both of these nations are also the state-sponsors of terrorism.
I’m with you MEexpert on our American vocabulary of slanted terms, and the way we use them. Have you ever noticed how even by some fairly liberal authors to how they refer to Assad as a ‘regime’? How about Putin who outside of having his Russian Air Force aiding a sovereign Syria against their fight against ISIS, that while at the same time he fortifies his homelands borders against an over intimidating NATO, and is accused of being an aggressor? China has the unmitigated nerve of believing they have sovereignty rights over islands off of it’s own coastline. Imagine that.
Since I pretty well think I know where Robert Parry’s head and heart are by my reading his many well researched and truthful articles I won’t dwell on his using the word ‘militant’ since the word itself may be used and defined a few different ways….but, yeah we Americans should stop and think of how natural it seems to us to come out of our mouths the demonization that we do to the other people’s struggling to survive in this world, and then accept all of our low quality descriptions of them as mere fact.
Then there is you MEexpert, who helps by definition to keep us all straight. Thanks we needed that…..Joe
MEexpert,
Thanks for your efforts to clarify the difference between the rhetoric and reality!
As a way to agree with your observations, after reading your comment the question that came to mind is –
Since our officials in Washington make such a big deal over Israel being “the only democracy in the Middle East”, why on earth did they/we (secretly) overthrown Mossaddegh the DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED president of Iran in the 1950’s?
Most people, I believe have a sense of justice.
But governments have agendas – often those agendas do NOT serve their people – so they keep the truth hidden using “national security” as an excuse.
sustainability and world peace are not profitable enough for the movers and shakers…..
very sad
Who cares if Jared Kushner plucks his eyebrows? He’s a rich, pampered kid who knows diddly-squat about the real world but is getting into a position to screw up the world, with or without plucked brows.
Jessica, I will put it another way. What would be your thoughts and feelings if your husband/boyfriend began extensively plucking his eyebrows to achieve “a more dramatic look”???
Looking carefully at his photo-portrait it appears that Jared Kushner plucks his eyebrows. I have seen that plucked eyebrow look many times, exclusively on girls. It is meant to achieve the appearance of intelligence, knowing slyness, and authority. Netanyahu tries that act with his left eyebrow, and Jared seems to pay particular attention to his left eyebrow too.
My opinion is we who are ANTIWAR have got to hit the streets just like the days of Vietnam. So far the protests to Trump and his admin have been focused on only social issues. The horrendous wars of the ME cannot continue without calamity for the world even worse than present. We should be networking in our communities now in winter months to prepare for real activism in spring. I’m stuck in a little town in NH White Mountains now but am moving to a city in upstate NY in spring and will get going with peace groups there. We can’t let this corrupt government continue this madness without a fight. Antiwar.com and Counterpunch have been saying that, “Where is the Peace Movement?” We have to bring it back.
Everybody’s doing selfies.
To survive as a serious person, one cannot become target of sustained attacks from a major lobby, either Israeli or Saudi.
This rule of survival has taken down many good people who resisted. They were made examples, not just defeated.
It is this negative example that is the real power of the major lobbies, not just the carrots they offer in donations directed to those they support.
They have a back door to power, because they’ve eliminated the others. They are the only ones left standing.
It would take greater numbers and determination than we’ve seen to resist this, as for example we saw with McCarthy himself in the original. I’ve seen signs that is building, but it is still far from critical mass.
In that, Trump is just falling into line with reality. It isn’t him or any specific advisers, it is the DC system.
An article not seen in Corporate “Media.” See link below:
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Trump’s Refugee Ban – Made in Israel?
By Allison Weir
February 10/11, 2017 “Information Clearing House”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46431.htm
I think this analysis is correct, except that it is a guaranteed loser. A war of aggression against Iran would be even worse of a quagmire than Bush’s Iraq war. And to threaten war for all of Trump’s tenure as Bish and Obama did is also a losing strategy. Trump does not want to be a loser. He hates losers. Probably he will see where the advisors and funders mentioned above are pushing him. We’ll have to wait to see if he rejects them in the end. My guess is that he will. Clinton would never have rejected the war hawks, but Trump may do it. Russia will be pushing him in the opposite direction on Iran.
Another proof that Trump is more of the same. The CIA is commending Saudi Arabia for its “fight against terrorism”…ha ha ha. The George Tenet medal should include an engraving showing the twin towers, so that the Crown Prince can reflect on one of his family’s achievements in the “fight against terrorism”.
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2017/02/11/510036/CIA-honors-Saudi-crown-prince-with-medal
The consensus of the writer and the respondents is that peace in the Middle East is not going anywhere without a change of heart by Israel. While critics like to refute this by arguing it’s all about oil, a la Chomsky, what is undeniable is that nothing positive can happen for Israel’s neighbors without approval by Israel and its supporters in the US and Europe.
Which leads to the conclusion, at least one, that nothing positive can happen until the Israelis themselves change their position which then leads to the issue of the Palestinians. There is not going to be a two state solution which has any real meaning for the Arabs in Israel and Palestine and the Israelis are playing the United State electorate by pretending that it is.
The only viable solution absent shipping out the Palestinians in masse is the granting the Palestinians full citizenship rights where they live in one state. Israeli’s apologists will shout that is a nonstarter, but there is strong reason to believe that is what will happen simply because there are no other options, and all the money and power of the Zionists cannot stop it.
two points that relate to your comment, Herman:
Noam Chomsky, years ago, said that Israel is the military arm of the U.S. in the Middle East:
Andrew Bacevich in the Pardee School speech (during the Q&A afterwards) said that “yes”, Israel has an impact on foreign policy but that impact pales in comparison to the impact that the MIC has on foreign policy. :
https://www.bu.edu/pardeeschool/2016/04/20/bacevich-gives-talk-on-americas-war-for-the-greater-middle-east/
What worries me is the extent to which our MIC and the right wing hawks here and in Israel are aligned……
This all needs a huge public discourse out in the open, IMO.
In my opinion Chomsky has that exactly backwards. Israel’s dirty work has been done by the US military in Iraq, Syria, and Libya, just to name a few. They collect piles of tribute from US taxpayers, and direct successive US governments around in the same fashion as drill sergeants handle raw recruits.
Wag The Dog for Greater Israel and lots of profit. What’s not to like?
I think I heard Gideon Levy say something very similar to what you just now stated.
In my dream world all nations will respect the lives of it’s population. Equal means equal. Make it a goal and never quit reaching for it. Also end all war. Israel at best was an experiment, and it has surely proved to be a bad experiment at that. Quit increasing military and spy agency budgets, and then let’s watch the terrorism stop…afraid, what do you have to lose? Everything because that’s where this debt bubble of war is, and or has taken us…I think all that’s stored down at Fort Knox is a couple old cars, but who needs gold when you have a printing press?
Interesting article at link below:
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TGIF: ‘Isolationist’ Trump Rattles His Saber
By Sheldon Richman
February 10, 2017
https://www.libertarianinstitute.org/2017/02/tgif-isolationist-trump-rattles-saber/
A valuable link. Thank you. Sheldon Richman’s links are also valuable, particularly the connection to discussion of today’s Russia vs. the old USSR.
Parry,
Your article is well argued and draws the frightening conclusion that we are about to get some of the “same ole, same ole” when it comes to Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the Middle East.
You left three characters out of the main text of your narrative. You did bring in one at the end, but I think that only shows what an important player he is. You wrote:
“Trump also may be isolating his new Secretary of State as Tillerson apparently looks to more realist options and fights to limit neocon influences in making U.S. foreign policy.”
I don’t think Trump is trying to isolate Tillerson and I think you can’t set Tillerson aside as you have. He is “THE MAN” in this instance, the Secretary of State, and his thinking about Iran and terrorism will be absolutely criticial in generating policies in this arena. Second character missing: our Ambassador to the UN. While she’s hardly as important as Tillerson and I wouldn’t rely on her to do the right thing, she’s a loose-canon as far as the neoconservatives are concerned and can’t be relied on to promulgate the line you are suggesting.
The main character you have omitted as an ACTIVE PLAYER in all of this, whom you’ve cast as A PASSIVE VICTIM of his lower-level support team, is PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP. You’ve written NOTHING that suggests he will go along with such tomfoolery, especially with the Secretary of State opposing it.
Trump’s purported “deviation from foreign policy orthodoxy” was a propaganda scam engineered by the Israel Lobby from the very beginning.
Trump received the “Liberty Award” for his contributions to US-Israel relations at a 3 February 2015 gala hosted by The Algemeiner Journal, a New York-based newspaper, covering American and international Jewish and Israel-related news.
“We love Israel. We will fight for Israel 100 percent, 1000 percent.”
VIDEO minutes 2:15-8:06
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiwBwBw7R-U
After the event, Trump did not renew his television contract for The Apprentice, which raised speculation about a Trump bid for the presidency. Trump announced his candidacy in June 2015.
Trump’s purported break with GOP orthodoxy, questioning of Israel’s commitment to peace, calls for even treatment in Israeli-Palestinian deal-making, and refusal to call for Jerusalem to be Israel’s undivided capital, were all stage-managed for the campaign.
Cheap theatrics notwithstanding, the Zionist Power Configuration continues to enjoy front-door access to the White House and unconditional support from Trump.
Abe,
You’ve got it totally wrong. How a commentator could veer so far from the reality is beyond me. Contrary to your absurd conclusion, the Zionist Power Configuration DOES NOT enjoy front-door access to the White House and DOES NOT HAVE unconditional support from Trump
Yeah, totally.
“Donald Trump will be the best president in my lifetime.” – THE PROFESSOR
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bart-gruzalski-638a6455
Good point- and Algemeiner is as hardline as you can get.
“Trump has been consistently criticizing Tehran in a pretty harsh manner. His position on Iran is primarily determined by the fact that Trump is one of the most pro-Israeli US presidents in recent decades, so his position on Iran is virtually identical to the views expressed by Israel, and it would be an understatement to say that Tel Aviv hates Tehran. If Barack Obama in the final years of his presidential career was searching for ways to lift anti-Iranian sanctions, even if it was putting Washington on the collision course with its traditional allies in the Middle East (particularly with Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar), Trump feels the urge to return the former status quo.
“How else can one explain Trump’s anti-Iranian sentiments? – We should not forget that the new US president adheres to conservative policies, therefore he’s going to be protecting US oil and gas corporations vigorously, especially when they have recently received a chance to start exporting oil from the US. Under these circumstances, Tehran’s intentions to win back the share of the market that it lost due to Western sanctions could result in an abrupt drop of oil prices. This will undermine the positions enjoyed by US oil companies, which are being directly supported by the 45th US President and his State Secretary Rex Tillerson. The new US administration is clearly not going to wait for Iran to spend oil and gas revenues on the strengthening of its military forces, which should allow it to expand its influence in the region even further.
“In addition, a possible face-off between the United States and Iran will result in oil prices skyrocketing out of control for the first time in a long while, which will inevitable damage China’s interests, since Beijing has always been dependent on Iranian oil supplies.
“Apparently, Iran is going to play the role of the “evil country Number 1 in the world” in the next four to eight years. However, Washington’s outright hostility towards Iran may trigger a new round of crisis across the Middle East, especially against the background of unresolved issues with ISIS.”
Iran – Trump’s Evil State Number 1 To Be
By Jean Perier
http://journal-neo.org/2017/02/11/iran-trumps-evil-state-1-to-be/
Do you concede that your initial expectation of a Trumpian realpolitik was over-optimistic?
Trump appears poised to give both re neocons and the neoliberal hawks what they want. Perhaps his isolationism was just a stratagem to stake out the best negotiating position, so he could sell out for a higher bid. Or perhaps he really is an ideologue. After all, who in America isn’t? Surely we would be impaled by the sharpness of our own moral hypocrisy were it not for the ethics-proof armor of ideology.
America first = my country, right or wrong – not that we have sight left to distinguish the difference.
Great comment, Sangy!
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As I’ve mentioned here, before, I had a most unusual experience in a chance encounter at an airport with an older (younger than me) Republican couple from Boston. They had been desperate to have someone beat Hillary but they said they would have voted for Bernie. When I mentioned the horrific endless regime change wars, they nodded vigorously in horrified agreement.
In his book, Bernie makes it clear that he abhors these wars for natural resources. He gets it.
Retired Colonel Andrew Bacevich, conservative Republican and professor emeritus of history at Boston University proclaims in video interviews that our foreign policy over the last 30+ years is wrongheaded and dangerous making us less safe:
https://www.bu.edu/pardeeschool/2016/04/20/bacevich-gives-talk-on-americas-war-for-the-greater-middle-east/ )
We need. I think, a grass roots push to rally around these people (who have a microphone) to prove to them that there are people in this country who recognize what’s going on in our name and want them to use their microphones to speak out against the endless Cold War Neocon trajectory that feeds the MIC and D.C. ideologues.
Bacevich already speaks out very forcefully and I’m grateful to him. But we need politicians with a microphone to do so too.
Peace groups and anti war groups speak out too.
Consortium News dares to be honest and speak out and to publish fact based articles that counter the propaganda.
We need to push those politicians who agree that there finally may be a hunger in this country for open debate on this subject. They have the microphone. They need to speak out.
If only that Portland finch ( It was finch, right?) had landed on Bernie’s finger, instead of changing its mind and going to the podium…
The holy spirit is a birdbrain sometimes. Remember the dead Mandaeans, dummy!
It is all very depressing. Nobody is “pushing” Trump around. He is what he is. By appointing the fanatics that he appointed to major positions, and by putting his Netanyahu stooge son in law at the helm of a ludicrous “peace plan”, Trump has shown from day one that he is a liar. There will be no “peace dividend”. There will be no swamp draining. It will be business as usual for the indispensable, exceptional nation, and he will clash with Putin as soon as he starts messing around with Iran. Finally, as he begins to deliver on the neocons’ revamped wish list, and as he starts to tear down the few hurdles that may still bother Wall Street fat cats, the MSM will start treating Trump better and becoming as submissive as they have been with all the other presidents, except for the ocasional cry from liberal corners, exclusively absorbed with the usual identity politics issues. Vey sad.
This caused me to make a search, for anytime the New York Times says something, that “something” bears investigation because the neocon rag is getting very comfortable publishing notorious lies.
All I’d previously known about Jared Kushner was that he was Trump’s son-in-law. What I’ve learned from my brief search has convinced me Kushner is about as interested in the welfare of the Palestinians as is Netanyahu.
Article Title – “Jared Kushner fired me over Israel ten years ago”
I didn’t last as long. Jared and I had a few polite conversations in the year that we cohabited on Broadway, and two very uncomfortable meetings over Israel and Palestine. One was before I went out there in July 2006 on his dime to see the country for the first time, during the Lebanon War, and the second one was after I got back that August. In the first, Kushner told me about his Holocaust background, his grandparents who barely survived, and his regard for Israel. When I got back, Kushner and Brian Kempner, the newspaper’s publisher who had worked at the Israel lobby group AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), couldn’t wait to hear what I had seen out there, they said. But when I started talking about the occupation, the room went cold as the poles, and Kushner gazed right through me with those unsmiling dark little eyes. Kaplan was even more uncomfortable than I was, and thankfully brought the tortuous meeting to a close.
But I managed to get a frank description of apartheid in Hebron into the pages of the Observer.
This couldn’t last. In February 2007 Kaplan closed his office door and said he was a Zionist, Kushner was a Zionist, Kempner was a Zionist, and the janitor was a Zionist, too, and the newspaper would not pay for me to blog, as I was demanding (at that time I was only paid for published columns). It was fitting; I was gone.
http://mondoweiss.net/2017/01/jared-kushner-israel/
I hadn’t been aware Kushner’s wife was a Jewish convert.
Ivanka Trump converted to Judaism before marrying Jared Kushner, an Orthodox Jew, in 2009.
But in Israel, it’s not that simple: You’re only Jewish if the rabbinic authorities say you’re Jewish. Last year, they questioned the credentials of the rabbi who oversaw Ivanka Trump’s conversion.
Then, a few weeks after her father Donald Trump won the U.S. election, Israel’s chief rabbis made a proclamation: They were looking to change the guidelines on which Jewish conversions they recognize.
According to the proposed guidelines, they said in a statement, Ivanka Trump would be certified Jewish.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/02/08/israel-ivanka-trump-jewish/97638832/
Before the election I remarked that the Palestinians were screwed if either Hillary or Trump was elected. But now that I know Kushner is a dyed-in-the-wool Zionist, the rest of us may be too. Especially if Trump allows him to steer Mideast policy. The news stories say Kushner was a driving force in the effort to get neocon nut Elliot Abrams into the State Department. If Kushner starts a successful push for a US strike on Iran, then Israel will end up as well off as if the crappy little nation had gotten the candidate it preferred – Hillary.
Zachery… consider this , Trump’s daughter’s husband, Kushner is a financier and builder of Israeli settlements . I had picked up a comment on that about a week ago on one of many blogs , and decided to check it out. I plugged in a few words and came up with the usual dozens and what jumped out at me was the Wikipedia bio on Jared Kushner near the top. This whole thing is a recipe for more of the same. What with the entanglements …of DJT’s family, tax papers, and non-divestiture at the top of the list. It all stinks to high heavens…I found your post very enlightening….Ivanka’s conversion and how now they’ll bend some rules to accept it as being official. Also, Trump’s mention of relocating the Embassy to Jerusalem now seems to have some deeper meaning, even if he’s backpeddled on it. IF…IF there is a financial connection between Trump and Kushner , partnership or whatever name you want to call it , that would be an opening for impeachment . much as you alluded to …. in your summation, Palestinians loose , and imminent war STILL with Iran and Russia.
Trump’s nixing of prominent neoconservative Eliot Abrams for the position of Deputy Secretary of State in now way signals that the new regime is prepared to cut America’s Neocon-Neoliberal Deep State off at the knees.
Let’s just say the US Presidential election produced a corpse in a car minus a head in a garage.
In the Pulp Fiction that is American politics, the Trump administration is still the same car:
VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTN7Mhv59KA
America remains “beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men” Ezekiel 25:17
Abe
You just can’t get it right, can you. You wrote:
“Let’s just say the US Presidential election produced a corpse in a car minus a head in a garage.
“In the Pulp Fiction that is American politics, the Trump administration is still the same car.”
The implication SEEMS to be (you are not clear, Abe) that the Trump administration has the same old “shoot’em-up” foreign policy that Obama had and Bush before him. IF that’s not the implication, I don’t see any point to the segment from Pulp Fiction in which tired actors remove ketchup from a car, do you?
If that is the implication, you’ve got it wrong. In the movie the guys head is blown off BY MISTAKE. None of the US foreign policy that produced our invasions of Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq (twice), the destruction of Libya was a MISTAKE. It was all done on purpose, by jerks like Bush II, Obama 0, and Hilliar the worst.
IF the point is that the USA can make mistakes in foreign policy, I’m sure its true but so did you in writing up such a confused comment which, unfortunately for you, was not a mistake but you did it on purpose. Get off the field of play until you can screw your head back on straight, Abe.
Here’s the point you obviously missed, Professor:
Regardless of the “disrupted narratives” woven by the Trump administration, US “foreign policy” remains the same blood splattered MIC vehicle, driven and crudely camouflaged by the same tired actors, enacting the same horrific screenplay year after year.
No “foreign policy mistakes” were made by past US administrations:
(“You hit a bump or somethin’ and the gun went off.”)
No “foreign policy mistakes” will be made by the current US administration:
(“Look! I didn’t mean to shoot this son-of-a-bitch, the gun just went off, don’t ask me how!”)
No “foreign policy mistakes” will be made by future US administrations:
(“My gun just went off, I dunno how.”)
Trump is merely the latest hit man pressing the barrel of a gun in the cheek of some country, saying “Say ‘What’ again! C’mon, say ‘What’ again! I dare ya, I double dare ya…”
Official Washington’s pro-Israel Continuity of Government (COG) has been maintained, and God will not come down from Heaven and stop the next round of bullets (and missiles).
Abe’s comment was perfectly clear to me..and I’m not an all-CAP professor. I always appreciate Abe’s contributions and enjoy his sense of humor as well.
Nixed yes, but because he was a neocon? I wonder. Those fifth columnist rats will keep trying to infest the Executive, and Trump’s son-in-law may not try to prevent it if he thinks they are aligned with the President on other agenda issues.
I agree and disagree ……But first I will say again, if I had posted a remark such as the article implied It would have been deleted by consortium watch dogs…..Now having said that, the Trump agenda and the neocon agenda are miles apart….The Trump agenda is about consolidating geographical locations to form a new alliance for the future distribution of fossil fuels. Which include the massive natural gas field in the Golan heights (Syria) ….the one the Israelis are claiming !!……While the neocon agenda is all about revenge…possibly religious in nature but more like hostility against historical conquest involving Jews/Hebrews and Russia and Iran/Persians….And who better to invite along to this blood bath than the “military industrial complex” to complete the neocon roll call…..Jared Kushner doesn’t give a rats ass about historical revenge…..More later…..
John with your intriguing comment are you saying that Jareed is in it for the oil routes? Also, does your comment mean that both sides, Neocon vs Jareed’s, are heading in the same direction…MIC, war and forever war?
A lot of family business owners at the age of seventy start handing over the reins over to they’re successor if not by now, well then it was sooner.
Your comment John urges my questions because I’m still trying to learn to just what in the hell is going on with these people in our Nation’s Capital, and your comment sparked my interest all from what fresh angles you presented here.
The old business model that birthed the “petrodollar” is in dire need of a face lift….The new model also co-created by Kissinger will include the countries who are hell bent on crashing the petrodollar party…..The foundation will once again be the USA dollar along with some very sweet deals of debt from our good friends from Goldman Sach….The angry neocon agenda which hides behind the fake news of the MSM is playing catch-up with tabloid news…..Most of the money behind the MSM is neocon money which has a head start from the Obama years……….
Thanks John
A simple formula for reducing the current and impending chaos in the Middle East is to disqualify anyone who played a prominent role in promoting the war on Iraq from any similar activity anywhere – especially in the Middle East. The challenge, of course, is to implement such a rule.
How could that challenge be converted into an implementable set of achievable objectives?
One need is to define “prominent role” … what exactly does that mean?
Once defined, competition for the “hawk y Hawk” award is certain to be intense.
Those not qualified will most certainly feel left out.
Bill yes and in order to start a Disqualifier list it would be a kind gesture if on your part you would to do this first as you would need to establish massive therapy sessions for all of the elected government officials with a treatment for the shock that they would all receive when the word came down, “Now hear this, from this day forward all of the U.S. Government leaders in lead positions of authority will now and from this day forward be held Accountable for their actions”. There would be utter mayhem through out the Beltway, and I mean the actual Beltway would be jammed with fleeing cars filled with dirty scoundrels evacuating the Capital before the hammer of Accountability came down on their ‘political operative for hire’ asses would get fried. Washington once a place where careers were negotiability made, would now manifest into a hell of Omission where Deniability is in such short supply. Panic is to mild a word for the chaos would ensue.
The good news for them who for money betray their people’s government, is it doesn’t feel like much of what I went on about will ever have a consequence attached to it for any of those creeps to worry about, much them have any concern. Bad culture, take the money out Good culture. It’s simple math, and a simple start to begin the much delayed process of cleaning out the swamp.
Joe, what you describe above is music to one’s ears. One can only wish it could come true.
The recipe MEexpert is, take away the money and then we the people take control of our government…now if only it was that easy.
Joe, thank you for your detailed answer to my previous questions/comments. There was no Reply button after your comments. I guess Mr. Parry didn’t want that topic to continue. I must, however, add that another character in the USS Liberty episode was none other than Adm. John McCain Jr., the father of Senator John “we are all Georgians” McCain III, who swept the inquiry of the USS Liberty under the rug. The report, to this day, remains classified. As to your comment about what is going on our Nation’s Capital, all I can say is that Trump found out that he could not drain the swamp, so he decided to create a new swamp in which we are all drowning.
MEexpert I believe the reply buttons run out on or about the fourth or fifth reply. If the reply button were to go endlessly the comments would get skinner, and skinner, until it would be a one lettered line at a time. I don’t think Robert Parry is controlling anything.
Admiral McCain did do one thing that some consider credulous, and that was he finally was able to get the USS Liberty crew their well deserved medals. The reason the decorating wasn’t done, was because the USS Liberty wasn’t attacked by an officially declared enemy of America. It blows my mind to how this battered crew was treated. McCain put a gag order against the crew in place to keep this incident hidden from the American public. The crew of the USS Liberty felt the full weight of their governments betrayal with all of it’s ugliness that one could possibly bear. Also these unsung heros saw America’s darkest side of hypocrisy like no America ever should.
Trump even on a good day, has very bad applicants to choose from, why because everyone in the Beltway is driven by their careerism and the revolving door of money…it’s the red, white, and blue, and the American way!
Bill Bodden,
I like the rule. It wouldn’t be impossible to implement. It would just require that the State Department clean house—which it already has—and that none of the neocons are permitted to have any impact on foreign policy. Sounds like a version of a decent administration to me.
I used to think of Iran as Israel’s “Moby Dick”, but could never figure out where the injury was. I now see that it is America’s obsession because of the embassy takeover. Israel simply uses Iran to perpetuate unrest in the middle east because it takes the focus off of them. And for the MIC it is the goose with the golden egg.
Long before they took over our embassy in Iran, Britain and the US ousted Iran’s democratically elected prime minister and installed a brutal Shah, Reza Pahlavi. The Brits called the overthrow of Mohammad Mosaddegh, operation Boot, we called it operation Ajax. Booted him out, cleaned him out. Cute! Now we had a Shah who would do our bidding, and of course we like it that way, and Britain could continue to suck the oil out of the country with little overhead. Our wound is they took back their country and operate independently from us. A condition that has become intolerable to US. I think Israel is the wound inflicted on the Middle East, and it came into being with a lot of arm twisting in the UN, and favors promised, as they were to Truman.
Annie for everything you just mentioned about the 1953 Iran CIA instigated coup, is what’s wrong with our U.S. Iran policy. The other day I said, how if the U.S. is to ever go through a foreign policy rehabilitation then we should do like any addict has done, and admit our failures, and start with our telling the truth. To find a cure to what ills you, you always must identify the root cause of that problem. Treating symptoms only, and by ignoring the core problem, is foolish and generally ends up being way overly expensive, not to mention how the core keeps getting bigger and worst by the day, until finally you die…same thing with our made in DC reality which our government Adminstrations, one right after the other who have continued to sell to the listening public, and to who is so gullible to buy these official lies. So Annie your comment is a good starting point, and by getting out this epic story of betrayal and dirty espionage, and by starting this long put off conversation would be a shocking epiphany to our country and one well deserved at that. Thanks for the history lesson, we need more of what your teaching.
Joe, is the embassy take over any worse than the attack on USS Liberty? Remember, no one died or even seriously injured in the embassy take over. In the USS Liberty attack, 34 American sailors died and 171 seriously wounded. You don’t hear much about the USS Liberty attack in the MSM. Sadly, even with the extensive use of internet and the alternate media, majority of Americans still get their news (or lies) from the MSM. We need to make an extra effort to keep reminding the American public of these atrocities committed by Israel and the United States.
Also remember, the shooting down of the Iranian passenger jet in 1988 in which 290 passengers died. US claimed it was an accident, a mistake. The Captain of the ship received a medal for it. Israel’s massacres of the Palestinians in Lebanon. The siege in Gaza. I think once a month stories about these events should be published in the alternate media to keep the public informed.
MEexpert I must warn you that by your asking me a once ‘enlisted Swabby’ a question like that is like demanding that I expell an onslaught of such fowl and crass four lettered words that would be so vocally obscene as to make Lewis Black sound like a Sunday school prude teaching the gospels to children under the age of five, this meaning that your inquiry is a dangerous question to ask of my old salty ass in such a public place. Plus, I don’t want to get my answer to your question censored, so I’ll reply politely and make my dear mother who’s in heaven proud of her son who’s still on earth here struggling while trying to figure this crazy world of ours out.
Without offending the pain of either party of these two sad and tragic events in our American history, I will give you my assessment as follows. Suffering is suffering, and there is no reconciling appropriate enough to give one event over the other a higher status of sympathy to be given….it’s all bad!
The 1979 Iran Hostage crisis should be viewed as an Iranian ‘blowback’ event. On the other hand the ambush of the 1967 USS Liberty which was more deadly, and uncalled for, was an event which leaves me to question our country’s leadership,which did allow such a terrible tragedy to happen to this ship and it’s crew in the first place. If you take into consideration that the U.S. in 1979 was feeling the Iranian anger over our 1953 CIA coup, then you may at least try and understand the Iranian why of it. When it comes to the Israeli why of it in regard to the near sinking, and the unfortunate deaths and the unwarranted wounded casualties that the crew of the USS Liberty encountered, and adding to that misery that this attack was waged by a well funded Middle East ally of the U.S., it goes to the bottom of my having any respect for our ever beloved Israeli friends. I might add that recently Paul Craig Roberts had a wikispooks update whereas through the FOIA more revealing truths had emerged to the effect that LBJ and Robert McNamara upon learning of the Israeli attack on the targeted U.S. Warship is that now we know that these two good Americans worried more about ’embarrassing’ an alley, than responding to the rescue of the USS Liberty and their silenced crew….it doesn’t get anymore creeper than this.
In the end both of these incidents were a great cause of human suffering. These two uncalled for violent calamities could have been averted if America had not prioritized a policy of worldwide monetary hegemony over a policy of providing mankind with a suitable world to thrive in, and allow a natural order of political evolution to mature.
I hope that by my focusing on these two tragic events, and by my not including the many other tragic events which have occurred during our lifetime, such as Vietnam or 911 that you readers understand that the same principles of leadership which had caused these truly avoidable happenstances to materialize were the outcomes of a system who’s selfish tunnel vision aimed at gaining mostly by brute force or by employing bizarre creep missions of espionage for every mineral resource to be found on our Creators beautiful planet, was driven by pure greed.
Thanks for the question MEexpert, I hope my answer if sufficient….Joe
Here is an important article written by Tony Cartalucci where it appears that the USS Cole is at this very moment on a single ship mission, without a Destroyer escort, to navigate through the unfriendly waters of Yemen….wow, is it possible the fate of the USS Liberty is now an established maneuver of war?
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2017/02/trump-policy-continues-purposefully.html
I lived through the 1979 takeover of the US embassy in Iran. NO ONE ever mentioned the 1953 actions of the US. Americans are kept in the dark!
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/10/roaming-charges-big-boss-man/:
+ Newly disclosed CIA documents prove conclusively what most of us have known for decades: Saddam Hussein was operating with the backing of the US government when he used poison gas during the Iran/Iraq war. Like the Shah of Iran and the Guatemalan butcher Gen. Rios Montt, Saddam was our flunky, doing the most malign shit while on our leash (including savagely suppressing Kurdish uprisings after the Gulf War), until he had finally outlived his usefulness.
Also: there is an article with reference to a film about an alternative version of the Ukraine debacle right up front on this very website.
And here at “home”:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/10/roaming-charges-big-boss-man/:
+ Who needs Democrats? Shortly after the Army Corps of Engineers announced its intention to grant an easement allowing the Dakota Access Pipeline to begin tunneling under the Missouri River, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, the Democrat from North Dakota, said, “Today’s announcement by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers brings this issue one step closer to final resolution — and delivers the certainty and clarity I’ve been demanding.” Heitkamp’s “Final Re-solution” has a chillingly familiar ring to it..
With the connivance of petro-Democrats like Heitkamp, the FBI has made its return to Indian Country to investigate, spy on and, no doubt, infiltrate Standing Rock protesters. What could possibly go wrong?
You are right Annie. And let’s face it, Israel is the driving force (i.e. sponsor) & sole beneficee of terrorism in the Middle East.
Katherine,
That’s a very perceptive comment. Thank you.
Dr. Bart Gruzalski, Professor Emeritus Philosophy and Public Policy, Northeastern University, Boston, MA
Embassy takeover? Are you serious? How about the USA overthrowing Iran’s democratically-elected President in 1953? Don’t kid yourself- the USA has violated Iran and Iran has NEVER violated the USA! Americans who don’t think the USA has offered ANY nation a reason to hate the USA are sadly naive and clueless! And if they DO know something about the USA violations of other nations and STILL support the USA’s actions in “getting even” for some small action(compared to the USA’s!), they are hypocrites!
Here is an article that looks at Iran’s military capabilities:
http://viableopposition.blogspot.ca/2017/02/irans-military-capabilities.html
Given the American experience in both Iraq and Afghanistan, hostilities with Iran will likely prove to be a lengthy and very costly battle.
Beheading.
Turkish soap opera, Israely distributors ahead (or behead) of time. Humanitarian intervention with different sauce with no explanation that Iran is not behind these guys.
Frame by frame. Few slices and not single drip of blood???
Not a conspiracy but frame by frame analysis. Knife waving left and right and no blood. Come on?
I would write sth extensive, but f… Android
Very informative article Mr. Parry.
I believe a pertinent question is:
Are Iran and Russia… in the plans for “regime change,” by the war criminals that have, and are destroying, countries in the Middle East? Russia is now surrounded by the “War Gangs and War Criminals of NATO.”…
[read more at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/02/will-war-agenda-of-war-criminals-result.html
Trump is on a course to “Keep The Neocons Great” instead of “Make America Great Again”. Making America Great Again to me means taking care of the American people and making sure their right to democracy is not molested. It also means taking care of USA infrastructure instead of wasting money to destroy other nations on packs of lies! It is NOT isolationism to NOT get involved in other nation’s affairs. USA wars are started and fought WITHOUT the consent of even Congress, let alone the people who elected these “representatives”! As long as this is the case, Trump’s America will NEVER be great, as the military/industrial complex will continue to profit on lie-based wars and policies!
It’s high time that the USA reign in it’s intelligence agencies and military strategists which operate for one purpose only- waging wars. American will never be great until it foregoes wars and chooses diplomacy in its dealing with “enemies” and other nations. the USA of President Trump can only become great when it starts to respect the sanctity of human life!