The Democrats and the War
Syndicated radio show host Ed Shultz discusses his recent conversation with Senate majority leader Harry Reid about the Democrats refusal to end the war, their cowardice, the danger of war with Iran and the presidential campaign.
MP3 here. (11:07)
Ed Shultz is a progressive radio talk show host.
At the Independent Institute in Oakland, California, on Tuesday, November 6:
For more than a century U.S. foreign policy—whether conducted by Democrats or Republicans—has been based on the assumption that Americans’ interests are served best by intervening abroad to secure markets, fight potential enemies far from American shores, or engage in “democratic nation building.†But, what is the record of such policies, including now in Iraq? What lessons can America’s earlier foreign policy tradition of noninterventionism—which largely prevailed before the 20th century—offer for today? Would a peace strategy based on free trade and property rights instead promote both security and international harmony? Based on the new book, Opposing the Crusader State, experts Carl P. Close, Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, James L. Payne, and Edward P. Stringham will discuss these critical issues.
Reception: 6:30 pm. Program: 7:00 pm
Admission: $15 • $10 for Institute Members
$27 Special Admission includes one copy of Opposing the Crusader State • $22 Members.
Location: The Independent Institute Conference Center, Oakland, CA.
100 Swan Way, Oakland, CA 94621-1428
Phone: (510) 632-1366
Map and directions.
Regional War Coming
Antiwar.com columnist Philip Giraldi discusses the conflict for Kurdish independence from Turkey, Iran and Syria, U.S. support PKK/PEJAK, MEK, Jundullah and other terrorist groups, the high chances of war with Iran and the risk it will ignite a regional war, the willful ignorance of the Bush/Cheney administration, the neocons’ attempt to undermine Rice’s deal with the North Koreans, the belief of the “intelligence community” that the story of DPRK-Syrian cooperation on a nuclear weapons program is “some kind of fraud,” waterboarding, war crimes and American withdrawal from Iraq.
MP3 here. (40:41)
Philip Giraldi is a former DIA and CIA officer, partner at Cannistraro Associates, Francis Walsingham Fellow for the American Conservative Defense Alliance, contributing editor at the American Conservative magazine, blogger at the Huffington Post and columnist at Antiwar.com.
Neocons Live in Fantasy World
Gareth Porter continues his reporting on the coming U.S. attack on Iran. His new article: “For Neocons, Iran Aim Is Still Regime Change,†depicts the Neocons flawed assumptions – including their backward-belief that the liberated Shi’ite in Iraq would support the U.S. and destabilize Iran and their “realization” that they’ll just have to bomb the place instead.
MP3 here. (27:25)
Dr. Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist on U.S. national security policy who has been independent since a brief period of university teaching in the 1980s. Dr. Porter is the author of four books, the latest of which is Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam (University of California Press, 2005). He has written regularly for Inter Press Service on U.S. policy toward Iraq and Iran since 2005.
Dr. Porter was both a Vietnam specialist and an anti-war activist during the Vietnam War and was Co-Director of Indochina Resource Center in Washington. Dr. Porter taught international studies at City College of New York and American University. He was the first Academic Director for Peace and Conflict Resolution in the Washington Semester program at American University.
Iraqi Army Training (YouTube)via Intel Dump
Does the world face what some style as Armageddon because American pro-Israel groups still believe out-dated Israeli “public relations“?
According to Ha’aretz chief political columnist AKIVA ELDAR in an October 8, 2007 Democracy Now! interview, while the Israel lobby is “a very important instrument in order to pursue Israel’s policy… they’re a little bit behind the Israeli government and the Israeli people.” He clarifies: “We have seventy out of 120 members of the Knesset who support a two-state solution based on the ’67 lines.”
Then what’s the problem?
Says Eldar, “…if for forty years, you tell the [American] Jewish community that Israel cannot afford to give up the territories, they are important for Israel’s security, just overnight to tell [them], ‘Sorry, we were wrong. Now, we don’t need those territories,’ …It’s very difficult. I think that we are paying the price of having our PR doing a very good job for many years.”
The continuing “Palestinian problem” then, the core problem in the middle east which underpins the others according to The Iraq Study Group, Jimmy Carter and others, may be laid on the doorstep of too-effective Israeli “public relations,” especially as applied to the United States.
So the neocons, AIPAC, their amen corner, and other assorted groups, riding Israel’s coatails on to what some style Armageddon, are clutching a coat the bulk of Israeli society is no longer wearing.
And there’s an underlying anchoring sub-problem: As many Israelis have noted, it’s much easier for Israelis to criticize Israel and the Israeli government than it is for Americans and American Jews — who are likely labeled “anti-semitic” or “self-hating jews” — even have their livelihoods destroyed.
This roadblock to free and open discussion here in the United States endangers not only those men, women, and children living in the middle east, but people throughout the world.
So, the key to mid-east peace is already in the lock. But who in America has the cahones to turn it?
