Monday, October 01, 2007

Stop The Hype


Ernie Said It
by Charley Reese

Ernie Hemingway explained the problem many years ago. The first thing politicians do to hide their mismanagement, he said, is inflate the currency; the second thing they do is go to war.

Our currency has been inflated and we are at war [the price of gold is at $750]. The demonization of the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which you saw take place in New York City and on American television, is just the first step in preparing the country for a third war.

The president of Columbia, Lee Bollinger, disgraced himself. Instead of introducing his invited guest speaker, he launched a tirade of abuse and insults. Obviously, he was in hot water with some of Columbia's big donors for inviting Ahmadinejad and chose that petty, shabby way of trying to ingratiate himself to the school's angry sugar daddies. All Bollinger succeeded in doing was making Ahmadinejad look good in comparison with him.

Whether you agree with Iran's president or not, he's the wrong guy to try to demonize. First of all, he is not a dictator. He is an elected president with very little power. He has to get past the legislature, and the real power rests with the senior cleric, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Khamenei controls foreign policy and is commander in chief of all of Iran's armed forces. The legislature rejected nearly all of Ahmadinejad's recommendations for ministers. When he tried to allow women to attend soccer games, the clerics overruled him.

The claims that Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust and has called for the destruction of Israel are false. He has called for regime change, which is something American politicians do every time they find a country whose policies they disagree with. Regime change is a change of government, not genocide. As for the Holocaust, he said it raised two questions: Why put people in prison who question details of the official version, which is what several European countries do? Why should the Palestinians be made to pay for it? Both are good questions.

How American politicians can call Iran a dangerous country and claim that it poses a threat to the U.S. is a mystery. On second thought, it is not a mystery. It just tells you that the politicians think you and I are so stupid that we will fall for the exact same parade of lies and exaggerations that was used to justify the war against Iraq.

Think for yourself. Iran has no nuclear weapons, and its military is designed for defense. It has no offensive capability – no air force, no navy to speak of. Israel, on the other hand, is usually ranked as the fifth most powerful military state on the planet. It has more than 200 nuclear weapons and a superb air force.

Iran has said it has no desire to attack Israel or any other country. It has said its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and that it has no desire for a nuclear weapon. The head cleric has issued a fatwa against nuclear weapons. And there is not one shred of evidence that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon.

Just remember the lies told to you before Iraq: that Saddam Hussein was pursuing a nuclear weapon; that he had enormous stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons. The only thing he really had was oil. That's why we went to war, and that's why the administration wants to go to war with Iran.

I've heard some politicians say that Ahmadinejad has "blood on his hands." Well, our $40 billion worth of intelligence cannot even determine if he was involved in the taking of the American embassy back in 1979. As for blood, American politicians have far more Iranian blood on their hands. We overthrew Iran's democratic government and installed the Shah and his secret police. We sided with and assisted Saddam Hussein when he invaded Iran. Tens of thousands of Iranians are dead because of America's foreign policy.

19 Comments:

At 12:48 PM, October 01, 2007 , Blogger mrsleep said...

Thought I would sneak in here to get first dibs before Skip beats me to it.

I haven't written about Iran yet. This really concerns me, yet the press seems all over it right now. I don't think the American public, or Congress would buy any type of argument or story about War for Iran.

The ONLY mechanism would be to manufacture some type of event.

I agree with you on this article. Iran is more of a sideshow act right now.

 
At 12:54 PM, October 01, 2007 , Blogger Capt. Fogg said...

When I was a kid and sometimes listened to Radio Moscow on home made radios, I used to be confused and irate at their constant accusations of imperialism. Although they were militant imperialists themselves, they were also able to justify it as spreading freedom, instead of aggressive acquisition of resources as we continue to do even though we don't have the soviets to kick around any more.

There are so many bloody hands that it almost seems pointless to compare who has the bloodiest but of course it's hard to disagree with anything you're saying.

Unfortunately we've learned to see everything through the filter of the War metaphor since the 1940's and part of that scenario is fear of not seeming aggressive and of apparent weakness. Fear of cowardice makes cowards of us.

They've got us cowed still and they will fool us again and maybe again after that and perhaps the only way it will stop is if we keep opening, like Napoleon and Hitler, new fronts until we're eventually so overwhelmed we will sue for peace.

Today Iran, tomorrow the world.

 
At 2:23 PM, October 01, 2007 , Blogger Intellectual Insurgent said...

Today Iran, tomorrow the world.

This should be the masthead for the government. It is so true and so scary.

 
At 7:08 PM, October 01, 2007 , Blogger J.C. said...

Very simply they are preparing for the coming war, and want to be in a strategic position as to their capabilities.
No one knows for sure how the coming mid east war is going to go, and there is a lot of speculation about who will be on who`s side.
The Russians have the second largest nuclear stock pile in the world, and the Russians have the capability of taking out a number of the largest American cities, and also big sections of the American heartland as to farming areas, such as Iowa, and other rich natural resource areas.
One nuke would shutdown the barge traffic of the Mississippi.
One nuke would permanently destroy Washington.
The Russians are not stupid.
They also see that Globalism is the group that is planning the war, and they see that they are outsiders compared to some others, and they want to make it known that they do not want to be screwed with.
(Those recent long range flights again)

While it is thought that the U.S. in the guise of Israel will start the coming war, it could start from multiple other sources.

Then or before, there will be a controlled crash of our economy, and Globalism interests will sweep in even more, and humiliate and exploit North America in order to capture even more of its resources.

The fun is just about to start.

Expect 6 to 8 weeks of outright terror when this thing starts, and if we are lucky somehow it may not turn out the way Globalism wants it to.

 
At 9:40 AM, October 02, 2007 , Blogger RR said...

Whoa..

Ok, most of the hype is just that "hype". The Iranian pres has no real power: other than his power to poke American politicians in the eye and get them riled up with his rhetoric.

As for the rest of your post, come'on:

"It [Iran] has no offensive capability "

Iran is the BIGGEST state sponsor of terrorism in the world. Their forces directly train and equip thousands of people that kill civilians througout the world. They use their $$$ to finance terrorism.

While I certainly don't advocate attacking Iran -- it would be stupid in that it would galvanize a generation of citizens hungry for reform into nationalist automatons -- pretending that Iran doesn't want to dominate the middle east (militarily and politically) is simply naive.

 
At 10:42 AM, October 02, 2007 , Blogger Intellectual Insurgent said...

Thank you for that perfect regurgitation of what Fox News and CNN want you to believe RoR.

pretending that Iran doesn't want to dominate the middle east (militarily and politically) is simply naive.

What is simply naive is regurgitating propaganda without any facts to back it up. In any event, even if Iran wants to dominate the "Middle East", how is that different from what, say, America wants? Or what Israel wants?

 
At 1:44 PM, October 02, 2007 , Blogger J.C. said...

"As for the rest of your post, come'on:
It [Iran] has no offensive capability " R.O.R.

Ha ha, your kidding right ?

They have lots and lots of missiles that can hit Israel.

They can shut the gulf down.

They can take nuclear refined material and load it on a missile.

If Israel is stupid enough to attack them, the Iranians can start world war three.

They have all that radiated material that fits nicely on a rocket, and several rockets even, and guess what.
Bombs ahoy.
Next stop Tel Aviv.

They support terrorism ?
Geez man.
The biggest terrorist I know is G.W.
He and his ilk are super liars.

In fact,

Bush is such a big liar, that his dog Barney will not even come for dinner, if its Bush that does the calling.

 
At 4:59 PM, October 02, 2007 , Blogger mrsleep said...

No matter what your view of Iran happens to be, you would have to be bat-shit crazy to attack Iran unprovoked.

Unfortunately for us, Bat-Shit crazy happens to have his finger on the button right now.

 
At 3:46 PM, October 05, 2007 , Blogger RR said...

Yes... I get my "intelligence" from FOX news.

Look, its your blog -- believe what you want... but in this case you have no idea what you are talking about. You're opinionated response exemplifies your ignorance (and Skips) on this topic.

Just because the idiots ruling our nation didn't (and don't) know crap about the middle east doesn't necessarily mean everything from their mouth is in error.

Even a blind man finds a pearl now and again.

 
At 3:47 PM, October 05, 2007 , Blogger RR said...

(In case you didn't recognize it, the "Fox news" comment was tongue-in-cheek)

 
At 6:14 PM, October 05, 2007 , Blogger Intellectual Insurgent said...

You still haven't answered my question. Even if Iran wants to dominate the Middle East, how is that different from what the US and Israel want?

In any event, I disagree that our rulers don't know anything about the Middle East. Their forefathers carved the lines on the map that created nations out of thin air, they are close friends with the majority of the rulers there and understand the politics of energy better than any of us.

GW's father has probably spent as much time in Saudi Arabia as he has in Texas. I'm sure he educated his little one on what he learned during his years at CIA.

Your belief that these guys are flying blind is naive. Has it even occurred to you that this chaos is exactly what they had in mind?

 
At 6:41 PM, October 05, 2007 , Blogger J.C. said...

"Your belief that these guys are flying blind is naive. Has it even occurred to you that this chaos is exactly what they had in mind?"

Indeed, nothing like taking all that oil off the market to increase scarcity for 'value' (price).

Nothing like bolstering up our Phony religious crank friends in the area.

 
At 6:43 PM, October 05, 2007 , Blogger J.C. said...

Oh, and I think its 'even a blind pig finds an acorn now and then'.

 
At 2:48 PM, October 10, 2007 , Blogger RR said...

"GW's father has probably spent as much time in Saudi Arabia as he has in Texas. I'm sure he educated his little one on what he learned during his years at CIA."

You're kidding right?

Sure, GHW and co. know a lot about the corrupt and self-serving rulers in the region. But do you think that means they understand the populaces of those countries?

They know middle-eastern rulers and how to ingratiate themselves -- but little else.

While Saddam and the Sauds may be (were) buddies with the powerful in the US, it certainly doesn't mean our leaders understand the PEOPLE in the region.

The chaos we've precipitated in the region (that you yourself have pointed out on many occasions) points to their ignorance. And while the primary concern of our corp/gov masters has been to ensure the oil flows, much of the civil strife was unanticipated and unwanted: e.g. -- Surely it isn't in Bush-co's interests to have the Saudi's leadership undermined by rampant wahabbism -- as it is.

It's self-serving short-sightedness...

 
At 8:48 AM, October 12, 2007 , Blogger Intellectual Insurgent said...

Honestly, I don't understand where you get this.

Who cares about the populace when you have arms?

Wahhabism is STATE-imposed in Saudi Arabia. If it was such a threat, it would be out tomorrow. But apparently, the leaders - including their CIA masters - find it useful.

And you still haven't answered my questions about dominance in the Middle East. Why do you keep dodging it?

 
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