Iran - And The Democratic Party
Submitted by staff on Thu, 04/20/2006 - 7:39am.
This is almost enough for me to hang up my keyboard, look forward to summer and then football and pretend it's all just a bad dream.
As rhetoric builds, Democrats in Congress lie low on Iran. Most aides refused to speculate whether Democrats might support a military operation in Iran. Several aides acknowledged, however, that some Democrats in Congress could support a military strike . . . Any military action Democrats supported, one aide said, would not include the use of nuclear weapons.
The only reason I know it isn't a bad dream and can't hang up the keyboard is because we have been here before. In fact the nightmare is still going on, getting worse
The U.S. government is now spending nearly $10 billion a month in Iraq and Afghanistan, up from $8.2 billion a year ago, a new Congressional Research Service report found. Annual war costs in Iraq are easily outpacing the $61 billion a year that the United States spent in Vietnam between 1964 and 1972, in today's dollars.
I think a nuclear Iran with Iraq as its client state is a serious threat to global economic stability, but I am also sure that Iran believes honestly that it must acquire nuclear deterrent to stave off US imperialistic aspirations, after all they are now surrounded on all sides by the US military which is under than command of the decider in chief - not someone who has shown much proclivity for diplomacy. It's the shoot first plan later gang, as Thomas Friedman wrote
If these are our only choices, which would you rather have: a nuclear-armed Iran or an attack on Iran's nuclear sites that is carried out and sold to the world by the Bush national security team, with Don Rumsfeld at the Pentagon's helm?
I'd rather live with a nuclear Iran.While I know the right thing is to keep all our options open, I have zero confidence in this administration's ability to manage a complex military strike against Iran, let alone the military and diplomatic aftershocks.
As someone who believed
hi first timer
Submitted by Tim Russo on Thu, 04/20/2006 - 10:47am.
welcome to the fray.
close but no cigar. as i'm sure you know, we've been discussing partition of iraq at this blog for a while, the underlying assumption of a successful partition (and fairly widely accepted prerequisite, not to mention fact in existence on the ground) being that the Kurds get their own state, not some autonomy under Turkey.
but i think you're on the right track here.
close but no cigar. as i'm sure you know, we've been discussing partition of iraq at this blog for a while, the underlying assumption of a successful partition (and fairly widely accepted prerequisite, not to mention fact in existence on the ground) being that the Kurds get their own state, not some autonomy under Turkey.
but i think you're on the right track here.
"Stopping the Bush Juggernaut"
Submitted by JeanLR on Thu, 04/20/2006 - 10:10am.
http://www.counterpunch.org/wimmer04152006.html
This is important reading I thought; like many, I'm also feeling very uneasy about all this nuclear first-strike talk regarding Iran. Check out what this guy is saying, he talks about why BushAdmin should be taken seriously when they say that 1st strike nukes won't be "off the table". He mentions Ritter's article too, and says that given the situation, the anti-war movement (ie: all civilians!) need to focus "laser-like" on anti-war activites. This is the issue that unless "we" win, little else will matter~ take a moment and contemplate what Bush has said and the history of the Iraq run-up and Bush's arrogance, contempt for the Constitution and the People, and his supporters who want him to continue to detain without trial or habeus, surveil without warrant, to torture, to kidnap, to imprison indefinately, to wage aggressive war, .....with nukes......I've rambled on enough:
April 15 / 16, 2006
A Citizens Campaign to Interrogate the Supporters of These Wars
Stopping the Bush Juggernaut~~~
http://www.ourtable.org/site/weblog.php
"A 14-Day Citizens' Campaign
WILL YOU TAKE A NUCLEAR FIRST STRIKE AGAINST IRAN OFF THE TABLE?
This is the question we need to put to each of our elected representatives. And we need an answer now! Let's get to work today so that we know where Congress stands by April 28...."
Lieberman: I'd Support Iran Attack
Submitted by JeanLR on Thu, 04/20/2006 - 10:22am.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman said Tuesday that he would back a U.S. airstrike on Iran's nuclear facilities if diplomatic options fail, becoming the first Democrat to announce his support for such a move.
"I think the only justifiable use of military power would be an attempt to deter the development of their nuclear program if we felt there was no other way to do it," the former vice presidential candidate tells the Jerusalem Post.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/4/19/164250.shtml?s=lh
"Free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction."
(thanks to antiwar.com)
Lieberman
Submitted by AmberCat on Thu, 04/20/2006 - 10:58am.
is contemptible trash, and he needs to resign from the Democratic party. I can't believe I once had some respect for this man.
Look at Gore & Lieberman today -- so unalike
Submitted by Lucie on Thu, 04/20/2006 - 2:30pm.
Yeah, Lieberman gets worse every day.
Interesting how he's sucked up to the Republicans steadily since 2000 -- offhand I can't think of anything I have approved of that he's done.
Gore has done a lot of things since -- helpful things, related to technology and environmental issues -- and really has a passionate way of saying things that need to be said. I wonder what he thinks of Lieberman now!
What's Wrong W/ This Plan?
Long time listener, first time caller.
So, what’s wrong with this plan?Give the Iraqi Sunnis what land they have and let them do with it what they want.
Give Iran the Shia portion of Iraq, oil and all…a little land for a promise (with UN inspectors) to terminate their nuclear ambitions. Have US oil companies pledge to rebuild Iranian infrastructure for long-term access to that oil. Iran signs a non-aggression pact with Sunni Iraq.Give Turkey the Kurdish portion of Iraq with an agreement that they look after the Sunni Iraq in exchange for expedited inclusion into the EU.
I hatched this one drunken night but still can’t see what must be some obvious flaws. Should I be expecting the Nobel Peace Prize?