Israel, the dead roach in America's salad.
Arash
April 15, 2006
Israel: The Dead Roach in America's Salad
By Charley Reese
The Israeli "Lobby" and the neoconservatives are beating the drums for war with Iran.
I hope the president is not that dangerously stupid. The betting on whether he is
that stupid is about even.
The neocons – who, being self-centered, seemingly have no concept of human nature –
are advancing the premise that a military attack on Iran will cause the people to
lose faith in their government and result in regime change.
A military attack on Iran will have the opposite effect. The people will rally to
their government, and any hope of regime change will be dead. That people will rally
around their existing leaders in the face of an attack by a foreign power is as
certain as sunrise. Neither Israel nor the U.S. could do a greater favor for the
ruling mullahs and Iran's president than to launch an attack. It would cement their
hold on power.
The neocons' fallacious premise has already been disproved. In the Second Persian
Gulf War (1991), the first Bush administration confidently incited the Shias and the
Kurds to rebel after Saddam's forces were expelled from Kuwait. The administration
thought that Saddam, embarrassed by a crushing military defeat, would fall from power
in Iraq easily. Instead, he rallied his forces and crushed both the Shias in the
south and the Kurds in the north. Oops.
In the first place, it is not embarrassing for a Third World country with obsolete
equipment to be defeated by the world's No. 1 military superpower. In the second
place, the Sunnis, however much they might have disliked Saddam, disliked even more
the thought of being ruled by Kurds or Shias. In the third place, by President George
H.W. Bush's decision to not go to Baghdad, Saddam could say he duked it out with the
world's superpower and was still standing after the fight. That, in most eyes, could
be counted as a victory.
Some months ago, an Iranian human-rights advocate pleaded with the current Bush
administration to cease its rhetorical attacks on the Iranian government. She said,
quite accurately, that such attacks make life impossible for Iranian reformers.
Needless to say, the blockheads in Washington ignored her.
What did we do when the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked? We rallied
behind George W. Bush – Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives. That's
the natural reaction of normal human beings, and the Iranians are normal human
beings. Attack their country and they will rally round the flag.
The Iranians still insist they are not seeking nuclear weapons, and there's not a
scrap of evidence to contradict that claim. They still adhere to the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). They have often called for a nuclear-free Middle
East.
Once again, the dead roach in America's salad is Israel. The U.S. hypocritically
opposes a nuclear-free Middle East because Israel has nuclear weapons. We
hypocritically claim the Iranians are in violation of international law when, in
fact, it is Israel that refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)
and refuses international inspections.
Given our craven obedience to Israel, we have exactly zero credibility in the Arab
and Muslim world.
As I have said before, I don't care if the Iranians do develop nuclear weapons. My
whole adult life was lived with 30,000 Soviet nuclear weapons aimed at me. I can
certainly live with the six or seven nuclear weapons Iran might be able to scrape
together in the next five to 10 years.
In the meantime, the U.S. government should kick the Israeli "Lobby" out of the
country and support Iran and the Arab League in pushing for a nuclear-free Middle
East.
The Israeli "Lobby" is pushing America to fight yet another war for Israel reminds me
of what the late French ambassador to Great Britain, Daniel Bernard said at a party:
"Why does the world allow that shitty little country to cause so much trouble and
threaten world peace?" and then asked, "Why should the world be in danger of World
War III because of those people?" (http://www.aztlan.net/shittyisrael.htm)
Why indeed? You should ask your politicians that question.
* Charley Reese has been a journalist for 50 years. Reese also served two years
active duty in the U.S. Army as a tank gunner.
http://www.antiwar.com/reese/?articleid=8856
Links
--------
John J. Mearsheimer
http://political-science.uchicago.edu/faculty/mearsheimer.html
http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people2/Mearsheimer/mearsheimer-con0.html
Stephen M. Walt
http://ksgfaculty.harvard.edu/Stephen_Walt
http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people5/Walt/walt-con0.html
"The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy"
http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/Research/wpaper.nsf/rwp/RWP06-011/$File/rwp_06_011_walt.pdf
[PDF -1.2MB]
"The Israel Lobby"
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/mear01_.html
The Lobby: why is U.S. policy skewed in favor of Israel?
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=8730
Keeping It Quiet: The Israel Lobby's crushing of dissent
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/dd467987b30a53eb
CIA official: Does Israel conduct covert action in America? You bet it does
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/d30b0748559f30a3
The significance of 'Walt-Mearsheimer Study' can not be ignored
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/58bfbd5635390f52