Wednesday, September 17, 2008
The 51st State?
(1)
CNN's Fareed Zacharia had an interesting show Sunday (9-14). The show is called GPS (global Public Square). First there was Tom Friedman plugging his latest book, 'Hot, Flat, Crowded.' I found myself agreeing with most of what he said. Next was a discussion of the question of whether Israel would strike Iran before the U.S. elections in November. Finally, there was the 'human interest' story of Greg Mortenson, described in his book, 'Three Cups of Tea;' all in all, a great show.
What most interested me was the question of a possible Israeli strike, attempting to 'take out' Iranian nuclear facilities. The timing seems critical: 1) Bush and his Judeo-Neoconic administration will soon be no more - unless McCain is elected; 2) The U.S. has a huge military force just next door, so to speak, in Iraq; 3) Clearly, the current administration has no plans to attack Iran before moving out of the White House. Question: 'Can we (Israelis) get away with attacking Iran while there is still a giant U.S. buffer force between us and them? Better yet, can we induce the Americans to solve our national problem for us by convincing them to attack Iran?
We are, after all, the 51st state!'
There were four participants, Fareed Zacharia (the host), Irshad Manji (author of 'The Problem With Islam Today') - both of whom are Muslims - and Bret Stephens, and Gideon Rose. Stephens is a Jew; Rose may be. (The classic formatting problem appeared here - there is another person signed on with me attempting to sabotage this post. I had previously (yesterday) watched the video podcast on the CNN site and linked to it, but that link in my blog disappeared overnight. When I just now attempted to re-link, I was informed that I needed to install an active X control. No thank you. But if you want to see the podcast, go to here.) (But wait! See (3) above!)
Although the discussion was quite interesting I came away from it somewhat confused. I watched the segment again: still confusing! I saved it on my TiVo for later study.
Fresh this morning after adequate sleep I went through it yet again, and came away with the impression that I was being propagandized rather skillfully by Stephens and Rose, neither of whom seemed to be aware of the existence of The Israel Lobby (by Mearsheimer and Walt). Huh!? Rose was aware of it because he mentioned Mearsheimer's name; Stephens was aware of it because He gave this presentation some time ago. The 'presentation' is not so much a reasoned refutation as an emotional outrageon (to fellow Jews). My impression is that both these 'experts' on American foreign policy were lying to us. The Israel Lobby exists.
And they are part of it.
CNN's Fareed Zacharia had an interesting show Sunday (9-14). The show is called GPS (global Public Square). First there was Tom Friedman plugging his latest book, 'Hot, Flat, Crowded.' I found myself agreeing with most of what he said. Next was a discussion of the question of whether Israel would strike Iran before the U.S. elections in November. Finally, there was the 'human interest' story of Greg Mortenson, described in his book, 'Three Cups of Tea;' all in all, a great show.
What most interested me was the question of a possible Israeli strike, attempting to 'take out' Iranian nuclear facilities. The timing seems critical: 1) Bush and his Judeo-Neoconic administration will soon be no more - unless McCain is elected; 2) The U.S. has a huge military force just next door, so to speak, in Iraq; 3) Clearly, the current administration has no plans to attack Iran before moving out of the White House. Question: 'Can we (Israelis) get away with attacking Iran while there is still a giant U.S. buffer force between us and them? Better yet, can we induce the Americans to solve our national problem for us by convincing them to attack Iran?
We are, after all, the 51st state!'
There were four participants, Fareed Zacharia (the host), Irshad Manji (author of 'The Problem With Islam Today') - both of whom are Muslims - and Bret Stephens, and Gideon Rose. Stephens is a Jew; Rose may be. (The classic formatting problem appeared here - there is another person signed on with me attempting to sabotage this post. I had previously (yesterday) watched the video podcast on the CNN site and linked to it, but that link in my blog disappeared overnight. When I just now attempted to re-link, I was informed that I needed to install an active X control. No thank you. But if you want to see the podcast, go to here.) (But wait! See (3) above!)
Although the discussion was quite interesting I came away from it somewhat confused. I watched the segment again: still confusing! I saved it on my TiVo for later study.
Fresh this morning after adequate sleep I went through it yet again, and came away with the impression that I was being propagandized rather skillfully by Stephens and Rose, neither of whom seemed to be aware of the existence of The Israel Lobby (by Mearsheimer and Walt). Huh!? Rose was aware of it because he mentioned Mearsheimer's name; Stephens was aware of it because He gave this presentation some time ago. The 'presentation' is not so much a reasoned refutation as an emotional outrageon (to fellow Jews). My impression is that both these 'experts' on American foreign policy were lying to us. The Israel Lobby exists.
And they are part of it.
