The latest report? Don't you think something like "antiwar.com" may have an agenda and not present all the facts objectively? Furthermore, while people can complain about the U.S. acting too swiftly on weak evidence - that most believed at the time despite the revisionist history - the tired accusations of lying is a stretch. But since we're talking false claims here, where is all that Iraqi oil we were supposedly fighting for. You know, the
real reason we were there.
Amazing. Yes, Antiwar has a "bias" if you will, a bias against wars of choice and convenience. A bias against wars of self-aggrandizement and imperialism. A bias against the concentrating of powers into the executive branch that are part and parcel of war. This is something that is true across the political spectrum as antiwar's primary editor is a
right-wing libertarian-the linked article was written by a conservative former CIA operative- but antiwar serves as a clearing house for various antiwar points of view from the left, right and all points in between. Many people across the board did not believe the claims made about Iraq and said so at the time. We were
right. The other side was
wrong. We didn't have to make up false claims about yellowcake in Niger or links to Al-Qaeda or run around yammering about Saddam and a mushroom cloud. So when the same people start up again about Iran, a wise person would at the very least check the evidence a little more closely.
Exactly who is saying we need to move on Iran "now?"
Are you serious?
22% of Republicans think Iran requires military action now John Yoo Makes case for Military Action in Iran John Bolton says the sooner we attack the better Santorum threatens to bomb Iran War is such an evil thing that the only moral reason for it is self-defense.
Yet it seems you would have the U.S. attempt to deny that to the Israelis.
Ok, see where did I write that? I didn't. It is not self-defense to attack someone because of what you think they MIGHT do. Every country , every individual on this planet has the right to self-defense. Israel can do what it wants to do. But if it wants US tax dollars, military tech, UN vetos, etc then it needs to listen to the US.
Hardly. The wider troubles in the Middle East have always been connected to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, directly or indirectly. Often at the insistence of the dictators in the Arab countries surrounding them. Israel has always been the perfect scapegoat. And there's the irony. You have a small, democratic, free nation in Israel surrounded by one basket-case, tyrant-led regime after another and it's Israel who is made out to be the bad guy and the bully.
Again, this is a separate issue from Iran. Before the war on Iraq some of the same people that are now calling for war on Iran justified the removal of Hussein as dictator on the grounds that that would take the air out of the Palestinian national movement. It didn't and just showed that they didn't understand what was going on. Try tellling a Palestinian that Israel is democratic and free. Israel is an ethnic democracy. It is not a democracy for the residents of the West Bank or Gaza. They have been under military occupation longer than I've been alive. They are being forced off their land in a manner quite similar to what happened to the Cherokee, the Algonquin, the Ute, the Comanche, etc.
but it's not the Palestinians who are building settlements and kicking out the Israelis.
No, it's the Palestinians who (via Arafat) turned their nose up at a plum deal in the Oslo Accords. It's the Palestinians who chose a terrorist group (Hamas) as their government. A group which is funded in part by Iran. A group with whom peace will never be possible because they will never recognize Israel.
Just not true. The PA recognized Israel. What did they get? More settlements. You can not negotiate over how to share a pizza when one side is steadily gobbling it up. The new Israeli demand is that the Palestinians must formally recognize Israel as a
Jewish state, which is something that is simply impossible for any self-respecting Palestinian to do. And that so-called plum deal wasn't that -it was a codification of "Palestine" as a collection of bantustan like reservations.
Gush Shalom had a very good analysis of the offer. Israel doesn't recognize any Palestinian state.
I don't think a two-state solution is even possible at this point. The settlements in the West Bank are simply too entrenched. As the fortuitously leaked Wikileaks documents made clear Israel had zero intention of allowing anything approaching an independent Palestinian state-Israel would maintain border control, air space control, communications control, the right to arrest or kill whoever they wanted, etc-all things no state could tolerate.
The
only solution is a non-sectarian state with equal rights for
all, special rights for
none with protections for religious or ethnic minorities.One person, one vote. There is already one state in existence-it's just that some people-those living under military occupation and those with the wrong religion inside the 1967 borders-have fewer rights than others. This is unsustainable.
People who are Israel's friends recognize this.
The underlying tone in your posts makes it sound like Israel is just itching to attack Iran - as if they get any benefit whatsoever out of that. Yes, Israel can take care of itself. But, again, it sounds like you are more or less saying they should not do anything and just hope that sanity in Iran prevails. You're falling into that same spin where Israel is made out to be the bad guy and I-freaking-ran is the victim. Maybe I'm wrong but it seems you simply couldn't care less if Israel was wiped out by a nuclear attack tomorrow. Or maybe you're willing to offer Israel up in order to placate the jihad nutjobs?
Gee, like that's not an unfair projection. Let's be clear. I don't want to see anyone wiped out by a nuclear attack. I don't think that anyone's life is worth less than anyone else's.
That is true of people in Iran, Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and the entire planet.
Pre-emptive war is immoral. Murdering Iranian scientists and their families is immoral.
People have to find a way to live together without killing each other or claiming land that someone else is already living on. Period.
