Month: February 2011

from LobeLog: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for February 28th, 2011:

The Washington Post: Jennifer Rubin blogs that White House Middle East Adviser (and Middle East Quarterly board member) Dennis Ross’s appearance at the J Street conference today “was an odd assignment, given that J Street, in concert with the pro-Iranian-regime NIAC had conspired to try to prevent his appointment.” She observes, “The applause greeting him was slight, almost imperceptible.” (I attended Ross’s speech and remember Ross receiving a polite reception from the crowd.) She adds, “on Iran’s nuclear program, he gave the Obama-approved squishy line, saying we are determined to try to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons.”

RealClearPolitics: Hawkish senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) on RealClearPolitics’s State of the Union blog. “The president should reverse the terrible decision he made in 2009 to not support the demonstrators in Tehran,” said McCain, in response to a question about the Obama administration holding off criticism of Libya out of concern that Americans there might be taken hostage. “Stand up for democracy in Iran and tell those people that we are with them,” he continued, “And that should be true not only throughout the Arab countries but as far as China and other parts of the world as well.”

The War Party is on the warpath, with two of the biggest Usual  Suspects in the lead:

“The calls are increasing in Washington for the Obama administration to take new, stronger measures to punish the Libyan government led by Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi for atrocities and to protect Libyan civilians.

“Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) implored Obama on in a press conference to establish a no-fly zone in Libya, abandon its recognition of the Qaddafi government, transfer recognition to a transitional government formed by the rebels as soon as possible, and provide the opposition with support, including weapons.”

They didn’t ask, they didn’t demand — they implored! Well, I’ve got my own imploring to do: please oh puh-leeeze, Senators McCain and Liberman, could you kindly STFU? The Libyan dictator is on his last legs, but your “imploring” could be used to garner support for Qaddafi from Libyans still on the fence.

“The government of Libya, epitomized by Muammar Qaddafi is massacring some of his people. There is very little doubt about Mr. Qaddafi’s commitment to remaining in power no matter how much blood has to be shed,” McCain said on behalf of both senators at a Friday press conference in Jerusalem. “When a government massacres its own people, it loses its legitimacy. So, we should no longer recognize the existing government of Libya.”

Hmmmm, let’s see: the government of Iraq murdered at least 11 protesters in Iraq: does that mean we should withdraw recognition from the Maliki regime? How about instituting a no-fly zone? And what about Bahrain, where the King — our loyal ally — slaughtered protesters as they slept?

The neocons and liberal interventionists behind this latest push could care less about the people of Libya: they just want to grandstand, score political points, and insert themselves into a situation that has nothing to do with them, or, frankly, with the US.  Here’s more drivel from the same people who got us into Iraq, and can’t wait to get us into  Iran:

“On Friday, a bipartisan group of senior mostly-Republican foreign policy experts penned an open letter to President Barack Obama, urging him to make good on his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, when he said, ‘Inaction tears at our conscience and can lead to more costly intervention later.’

“The experts asked Obama to call on NATO to urgently develop plans to establish an air and naval presence in Libya, freeze all Libyan government assets in the U.S. and Europe, consider halting Libyan oil imports, pledge to hold Qaddafi responsible for any atrocities, and speed humanitarian aid to the Libyan people.

“‘With violence spiraling to new heights, and with the apparent willingness of the Qaddafi regime to use all weapons at its disposal against the Libyan people, we may be on the threshold of a moral and humanitarian catastrophe,’ the experts wrote. “Inaction, or slow and inadequate measures, may not only fail to stop the slaughter in Libya but will cast doubt on the commitment of the United States and Europe to basic principles of human rights and freedoms.”

“The letter was signed by several senior GOP former officials, including Elliott Abrams, Paul Wolfowitz, Bill Kristol, Eric Edelman, Eliot Cohen, Jamie Fly and Scott Carpenter, human rights activities David Kramer and Neil Hicks, and Clinton administration official John Shattuck.

“‘The United States and our European allies have a moral interest in both an end to the violence and an end to the murderous Libyan regime. There is no time for delay and indecisiveness,’ they wrote. ‘The people of Libya, the people of the Middle East, and the world require clear U.S. leadership in this time of opportunity and peril.'”

What are these “experts” so “expert” at, except creating fake “emergencies” and very real policy disasters? Bill Kristol should be barred — by law — from making any substantive comment on foreign policy matters, under pain of having to go fight in the frontlines of the next war he manages to gin up. As for  Wolfowitz and all the rest: that these people have no shame is axiomatic, but one  would think that the key role they all played in launching the biggest strategic disaster in US history would relegate coverage of this “open letter” to The Onion.

Comment of the year.

This is how peaceful demonstators are treated in “liberated” Iraq:

” Iraqi officials say at least 11 people have been killed and dozens injured in a day of violent clashes across the country between security forces and demonstrators.

“At least nine demonstrators were killed in separate clashes in three northern Iraqi cities during what was described as a ‘Day of Rage.’ In the western Anbar province at least two people were killed as security forces and demonstrators battled.”

Let those who are screeching  about the alleged “emergency” that somehow requires us to intervene in Libya, to “prevent a massacre,” take a good look at what intervention has wrought in Iraq.

For more, check out my column on the subject.

from LobeLog: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for February 25th, 2011:

The Weekly Standard: Jaime Daremblum, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, blogs on the “underreported news” that the U.S. government is investigating “whether Venezuela recently defied American sanctions by sending gasoline to the Islamic Republic.” “‘Hugo Chávez and PDVSA are actively helping Iran bypass both U.S. and international sanctions in its pursuit of nuclear weapons,’ said Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL). Over the past several years, Chávez has effectively turned his country into an Iranian satellite,” writes Daremblum. He ominously concludes that the Obama administration needs to “promulgate a coherent, robust strategy for addressing the Chávez threat and repelling Iranian influence in the region (which continues to grow).”

The Washington Times: Israel’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Danny Ayalon, writes in the Washington Times that the last few weeks have thoroughly dis-proven the importance of “linkage”—the concept accepted by both the Obama administration and the U.S. military’s top brass that resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would help further U.S. strategic interests in the Middle East. “The WikiLeaks revelations proved that among Arab decision makers and policy-shapers, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was fairly low on the list of urgent priorities in the region,” writes Ayalon. He argues that instability in the region is due to food insecurity, rising desertification, and vanishing water resources.