Antiwar.com Blog

I attended a debate between Harvard Prof. Steven Walt and veteran neo-conservative and American Enterprise Institute (AEI) fellow Joshua Muravchik at the Nixon Center Thursday evening. Most notable for the unfortunately abbreviated time I was there was Muravchik’s certainty that “if McCain is president, there will be an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.” The way he said this also conveyed that it could well be item number one on McCain’s agenda.

He also asserted that “McCain is by history more of a neo-con than Bush” (no quarrel there) and noted that his service as chair of the International Republican Institute (IRI), a creation and beneficiary of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), helped steer him in that direction. “I would expect from McCain policies (that) I would like,” he said just before his observation about McCain’s intentions vis-a-vis Iran.

I would have to take Muravchik’s prediction seriously given his long-time perch at AEI, McCain’s favorite foreign-policy think tank, and his long association with some of McCain’s closest advisers, including Robert Kagan with whom he has worked since their Central America days. (Incidentally, Kagan, as well as Abrams, may be vying for the National Security Advisor post in any McCain administration.) Of course, bombing Iran has been a devout and explicit wish on Muravchik’s part for nearly two years if not more, so this may be an example of wishful thinking, but I can’t help but believe his associations give him some real insight on this question. Kagan, however, has supported unconditional talks with Iraq if for no other reason than to strengthen the case for eventual military action.

Congressional Democrats this week shelved the sinister House Concurrent Resolution 362. That resolution, a high priority for AIPAC, would have imposed “stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains and cargo entering or departing Iran” and barred any export of refined petroleum from the U.S. to Iran. In other words, it would be a de facto military blockade, an act of war that would surely turn bloody soon enough.

Those champing at the bit for war with Iran won’t be resting; Democrat Rep. Gary L. Ackerman of New York, who wrote the resolution, told the Washington Times, “We’ll resubmit it when Congress comes back, and we’ll have even more signatures.”

Antiwar.com readers shouldn’t rest either. Make sure your congressmen know that you don’t want a conflict in Iran to satisfy wild ambitions for eternal war for eternal democracy. We’ve been keeping you up to date on these backdoor to war maneuvers. Make sure that you stay in the know about how D.C. is working to manipulate us into more. They don’t rest, unfortunately. Neither do we, and neither should you.

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The Katie Couric interview with Sarah Palin revealed her lack of understanding of the world. This would be funny if she wasn’t so close to actually becoming Commander-in-Chief:

The Night Watchman State has been replaced by Highway Robber States – governments in which no asset, no contract, no domain is safe from marauding bands of politicians. (from my Freedom in Chains, 1999)

If you voted in the congressional elections two years ago, were you ceding the right to the winners to give @ a trillion dollars to their Wall Street friends and donors?

Did any politician mention on the campaign trail in 2006 that a vote for them would be a vote for lavishing tax dollars on some of the richest wheeler-dealers in the nation?

Did any congressional candidate run on a platform of seizing tax dollars and using it to pay above-market prices for worthless assets for Wall Street’s benefit?

How in Hades can this bailout have any legitimacy within any notion of democracy that does not proclaim that citizens exist to be financially slaughtered for the good of whomever the rulers please?

Will Congress follow the same standard for the financial bailout that it used to approve Bush’s warring? If groveling and cheering worked for Congress rubberstamping policy in Iraq, why not assume it will also work great for Wall Street?

McCain’s surrogates, Max Boot and Richard Williamson, told a gathering of the hawkish Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) in Virginia last weekend that the Republican candidate, if elected, would not become actively engaged in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts and discourage Israeli-Syrian peace efforts, according to an important article by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s excellent Ron Kampeas. Consistent with my last post, Abrams’ influence on both McCain positions is apparent.

As noted by Kampeas, Williamson’s endorsement of those positions “signified how closely the McCain campaign has allied itself with neo-conservatives.” Frankly, the position of those foreign-policy realists who have endorsed McCain and who, according to the mainstream media, are supposed to be advising him — I’m thinking of James Baker or Richard Armitage as examples — is becoming increasingly untenable in this campaign.