Tuesday, December 4, 2007

UPI's De Borchgrave: "Time for smart power"

At UPI, De Borchgrave, here
"...Defense Secretary Robert Gates had long since concluded a bombing campaign against Iran's 27 known nuclear installations would trigger a general upheaval throughout the Middle East, particularly the oil-producing countries of the Gulf. Iran's formidable retaliatory capabilities -- e.g., Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, underground assets in Shiite-controlled Iraq, Shiite minorities in Saudi oil fields and in Bahrain, headquarters for the U.S. Fifth Fleet -- were dismissed by the neocons as bluff and bravado. Gates takes them seriously. The Hamilton-Baker Iraq Study Group report a year ago made clear Iran wields more influence in Iraq than the United States. If given the word, Iran's underground agents in Iraq could most probably transform an honorable withdrawal from Iraq into something not seen since Saigon circa 1975..."
and Col. Lang's comment:
It is time for plain talk, time to call a spade a "f-----g shovel" as one of my old sergeants would have said.
The chimera of Iran as deadly menace is a product of Israeli paranoia and debilitating fear of the "other." This fear saturates Israeli strategic thinking making impossible for them a rational contemplation of the odds against Iranian suicide attacks against Israel. Israel rejects the concept of deterrence of nuclear attack through creation of MAD (mutual assured destruction). I have described their reasoning elsewhere in these pages. Given the awful nature of Jewish history, such overwhelming fear of the return of the final "gollum," or perhaps Azrael himself is comprehensible.
What is not comprehensible is that their fear somehow captured the "minds" of the present population of of the White House, the NSC staff and the office of the Vice President. The tail has truly been wagging the dog. The interests and attitudes of a small client state have been allowed to seize control of the policy of an ecumenical empire. Was not this surrender and acceptance of capture an abandonment of the sacred oath sworn to the Constitution of the United States? "Protect and Defend...."
It is said that this National Estimate survived repeated efforts by the administration to corrupt the judgments of the intelligence community.
If that is true, then someone should pay... pl

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