Ladies and gentlemen, Avigdor Lieberman:
Israel will have to confront the perceived nuclear threat from Iran on its own, the country’s ultra-rightwing Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said.
In related news:
The Israeli Defense Ministry announced Monday that it had tested that country’s state-of-the-art anti-missile system. “The test was a complete success,” said the official. “President Bush picked up on the first ring.”
Has anyone in Africa paid attention to the last 4 years of international news? If so, then why, seeing the unrelenting destruction of Iraq over the years by the United States and its allies, would anyone, let alone human rights activists, complain that the United States has not invaded and occupied a country? Yes, I know, Darfur is horrible, I can’t turn a corner in New York City without a billboard or a subway ad telling me so. But how could they think anyone but the likes of SAIC and Lockheed would benefit? These are probably the kind of people who disapprove of the Iraq war because Bush lied, not because it was a bad idea from the beginning. Like “humanitarian intervention” in Darfur would be.
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) before the House of Representatives, Feb. 6:
Don’t Do It, Mr. President
It’s a bad idea.
There’s no need for it.
There’s great danger in doing it.
America is against it, and Congress should be.
The United Nations is against it.
The Russians, the Chinese, the Indians, and the Pakistanis are against it.
The whole world is against it.
Our allies are against it.
Our enemies are against it.
The Arabs are against it.
The Europeans are against it.
The Muslims are against it.
We don’t need to do this.
The threat is overblown.
The plan is an hysterical reaction to a problem that does not yet exist.
Hysteria is never a good basis for foreign policy.
Don’t we ever learn?
Have we already forgotten Iraq?
The plan defies common sense.
If it’s carried out, the Middle East, and possibly the world, will explode.
Oil will soar to over $100 a barrel, and gasoline will be over $5 a gallon.
Despite what some think, it won’t serve the interests of Israel.
Besides — it’s illegal.
It’s unconstitutional.
And you have no moral authority to do it.
We don’t need it.
We don’t want it.
So, Mr. President, don’t do it.
Don’t bomb Iran!
The moral of the story, Mr. Speaker, is this: if you don’t have a nuke, we’ll threaten to attack you. If you do have a nuke, we’ll leave you alone. In fact, we’ll probably subsidize you. What makes us think Iran does not understand this?
Imagine every member of Congress who supposedly opposes war with Iran speaking this clearly and forcefully. Can you?
Link.
Good job, morons: In response to the US announcement that it will pay $5 million for the heads of two men, one a member of Hezbollah, the other a member of Islamic Jihad, the latter organization has threatened to strike US interests. The Hezbollah man was apparently involved in a 1985 plane hijacking in which one US soldier was killed. The IJ man “has furthered the activity of Palestinian Islamic Jihad through activities such as bombings, murder, extortions and money laundering.” There’s no indication as to what this has to do with the United States at all. Though if the neocon goal of making Israel’s enemies America’s enemies is considered, it begins to make sense. I really look forward to being blown up at a pizzeria.
In an interview with CNN this morning, former UN ambassador John Bolton slammed today’s deal with North Korea as a “sham,” comparing it to the agreement reached in the 1990s by the Clinton Administration.
In response to a quote from Condoleezza Rice praising the agreement, Bolton said:
“The best thing you can say about this deal is that it’s so incomplete, and that the North Koreans may yet save us from ourselves by overreaching. They violated the 1994 agreed framework because they want to have it both ways. They want to keep the nuclear program and get these economic benefits. So I’m hoping the North Koreans will come to our rescue and show they’re not really serious here about denuclearization, because I don’t think they are.” (emphasis added)
I am assuming when Bolton says “come to our rescue” he is referring to the Neocons, not humanity.
Antiwar Radio: Karen Kwiatkowski
Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski Ph.D. tells how she witnessed Douglas Feith and his WINEP/JINSA/AEI buddies deliberately lie the people of this country into war in Iraq.
MP3 here. (30:13)
Her best articles on the subject are here, here, here, here, and here. See also this, this and this.
My previous interviews of her here.
Karen Kwiatkowski retired from the active duty USAF as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2003. Her final assignment was as a political-military affairs officer in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Under Secretary for Policy, in the Sub-Saharan Africa and Near East South Asia (NESA) Policy directorates.
During Col. Kwiatkowski’s time at NESA, she worked the North Africa desk, in the sister office to the Office of Special Plans. Prior to the Office of Secretary of Defense assignment, she served on the Air Force Staff, Operations Directorate at the Pentagon, the staff of the Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) at Fort Meade, Maryland, and served tours in Alaska, Massachusetts, Spain and Italy.
Col. Kwiatkowski has an MA in Government from Harvard, and MS in Science Management from the University of Alaska, and has completed both Air Command and Staff College and the Naval War College seminar programs. She also holds a Ph.D. in World Politics from Catholic University of America, with a dissertation on Overt/Covert War in Angola: A Case Study of the Implementation of the Reagan Doctrine.
Col. Kwiatkowski has authored two recent books on African issues, African Crisis Response Initiative: Past Present and Future (US Army Peacekeeping Institute, 2000) and Expeditionary Air Operations in Africa: Challenges and Solutions (Air University Press, 2001) and several papers.
On a break from James Madison University, Karen teaches science to high school kids and political science at her local community college.
Col. Kwiatkowski lives on a small farm in western Virginia with the husband and four children, ages 12, 15, 17 and 19. She is a regular contributor to LewRockwell.com, and has had articles about her work with the Department of Defense published recently in the American Conservative.
