JSP:
My pal and fellow towering intellect Mike Whitney sez Baker and his oil friends' plan for a slow fading dance in Iraq is up against... the Lobby!MJS:http://counterpunch.com/whitney12092006.html
The tension between the Bush administration and the members of the Iraq Study Group, illustrates the widening chasm between old-guard U.S. imperialists and "Israel-first" neoconservatives. The divisions are setting the stage for a major battle between the two camps....Not my view, but give my bud a look-see here.On one side we have James Baker and his corporate classmates who want to restore order while preserving America's imperial role in the region. And, on the other side, we have the neo-Trotskyites and Israeli-Jacobins who seek a fragmented and chaotic Middle East where Israel is the dominant power.
...[R]ight-leaning Israelis will be informing their friends in the Democratic Party about the anticipated attack on Iran, as well as discussing strategies for sabotaging Baker's report. If we see the Democrats lambasting the ISGs recommendations next week; we'll know why.
Over at the Huffington Post, one Dan Gordon, a Hollywood screenwriter and former soldier in the Israeli army, writes as follows:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-gordon/the-promise-of-peace-in-o_b_36091.html
One of the Study Group's co-chairs, Lee Hamilton, is a good, decent, and principled man. The other co-chair is James Baker. James Baker is to politics and diplomacy what J.R Ewing was to oil. Thus what one has is a decent face masking a much more cynical if indeed not sinister one....This then is the Jim Baker back room deal. By committing the United States to assigning the issue of Iran's nuclear program to the UN Security Council, we are virtually guaranteeing that no action will be taken to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon!
... But like the famed ginsu knife set commercial, that's not all! What else do you get if you're one of the first two state sponsors of terror to call the one eight hundred number? Well, if you're Iran and Syria you get Lebanon and the Golan heights!
...What does Israel and Lebanon, Israel and Syria and Israel and the Palestinians have to do with Shias killing Sunis in Baghdad? ... The only reason for including Lebanon in the conversation at all is to signal to Iran and Syria that it will be offered up for grabs to them on a silver platter as well.... It is a way of saying to Iran, help us out for just a little while only in Iraq and you will get in return a swath of Shia domination that stretches from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean.... [and] if you're Syria YOU GET THE GOLAN HEIGHTS!
...That is why from Abu Ayman to Assad to Ahmadinijad, they are breaking out the banners proclaiming "Jihad accomplished."
Comments (9)
dan gorgon seems very nice
Posted by js paine | December 14, 2006 5:38 PM
Posted on December 14, 2006 17:38
The notion that fur will fly and snarls exchanged seems a bit surreal...
Posted by sk | December 14, 2006 11:36 PM
Posted on December 14, 2006 23:36
this is as good a place as any for this
i hate the expression
hat tip
no one where's hats anymore
if they where something its a fuckin cap
cap tip
hats that are ready to be tipped are talland silky black
and the tpper has on a kit glove
its for sterling newbury types
retro gremlins without
enough social polish
to shine a fleas belt buckle
i'd like to think
the late and dear man
peter boyle
put paid to that round
of look back in ignorant awe
in
young frankenstein
Posted by js paine | December 15, 2006 2:09 PM
Posted on December 15, 2006 14:09
"Bush-Truman comparisons ... ...already
the subject of derision in the liberal blogosphere --"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/14/AR2006121401683.html?referrer=email
why?
don't the job mold the man ???
so what if standing back to back
harry looks like a giant
next to george
where it counts
the mission of empire
they might as well be twins
key line of equivalence
both took pretext
where they could find it
and
both confidently
declared open ended global war
on an omnipresent invisible enemy with boundless evil ambitions
and
both after a few easy rounds
bumped up ....hard and fast
against surprising
kick back
Posted by js paine | December 15, 2006 3:23 PM
Posted on December 15, 2006 15:23
I suppose second-guessing the intrigues of criminal enterprise is entertaining for HuffPo devotees, but why the fatuous lead about Hamilton decent, Baker bad? Unless he's suggesting critical examination of the standard use of bipartisan commissions to whitewash high crimes (i.e. Iran-Contra, 9/11), the lavishing of undeserved praise on the two-faced Hamilton serves no purpose.
Posted by Spartacus O'Neal | December 15, 2006 3:47 PM
Posted on December 15, 2006 15:47
S O'N
this zionic flattery
toward anything that smells
of demo hackery
even this spectre
of self important
venality past
is prolly
all part of
the hoped for
courtship
of enough of
the "prudent" donkery
to lure them into a
voter double cross
on iraq
by masking
a pure
aisle cross
to the repug side
as bipartisan convergence
ie donk's signing on to
a blatant
quag bail
one
that only hurts
dem 08 battle points
by sucking em into
the bloody mess
as junior partners
in
operation bagdad foot drag
Posted by js paine | December 15, 2006 5:38 PM
Posted on December 15, 2006 17:38
Isn't it rather late for the Demopublicans to disclaim any repsonsibility for the Athenians' debacle in Syracuse?
Posted by Brian Miller | December 15, 2006 6:17 PM
Posted on December 15, 2006 18:17
brian you made my day...
a classical reference
oughta
get
that old super chief
father f. x. smokey smiff sj
out of the fire house
like
someone wrung up a four bagger
Posted by js paine | December 15, 2006 7:44 PM
Posted on December 15, 2006 19:44
It's just that you read snippets from Thucydides (sp-my classical history is not that good, and I'm too lazy to google), and it's like nothing has changed. Nothing at all.
Posted by Brian Miller | December 18, 2006 11:08 AM
Posted on December 18, 2006 11:08