Republican warmongering against Iran is nothing new. Who can forget John McCain singing “Bomb, Bomb Iran” during a Senate committee hearing, when he did not know his microphone was open, wan back in 2008. With their culture wars drawing more and more ire from the general public, Republicans need a new focus to distract voters from improvements in the economy.
Here we go again. With the economy showing faint signs of life and their positions on the social issues alienating most moderates, the leading Republican candidates, with the exception of Ron Paul, have returned to the elixir of warmongering to once again sway the gullible masses. The race to the bottom has been set by Newt Gingrich, the most desperate of the lot, who on Tuesday charged that “The president wants to unilaterally weaken the United States,” because his administration has dared question the wisdom of Israel attacking Iran and proposes a slight reduction in the bloated defense budget.
Let the good times roll with a beefed-up military budget justified by plans to invade yet another Muslim country…
…It was an invasion that removed Saddam Hussein, once the U.S. ally in confronting Iran, from power and replaced him with a Shiite leadership long beholden to the ayatollahs of Iran. Of course, as Bush lied, this was not about nation-building aimed at imposing a democracy in our image, but rather, as is the claim now, about preventing radical Muslims from getting their hands on a nuclear weapon. In a Where’s Waldo moment, it turned out that the dreaded nukes were not in Iraq, and the leading Republican presidential candidates are convinced that Iran now has such weapons and they need to be taken out.
Not so, say CIA and Pentagon experts in these matters, who insist that Iran is some distance from developing a nuclear weapon, even if that is its intention. In a CNN interview Sunday, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated that Iran had not yet decided whether to build a nuclear weapon. He also said the U.S. had told Israel that any Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities would be “destabilizing.”
But such facts are not troubling to the GOP contenders, who seem not to have realized that there is one Muslim country already in possession of scores of such weapons. That would be Pakistan, the country Bush didn’t invade despite its avid support for the Taliban sponsors of al-Qaida. Instead, after 9/11, Bush dropped the sanctions his predecessor, Bill Clinton, had imposed on Pakistan as punishment for its developing a nuclear arsenal. Nor did Bush and his fellow Republican hawks get overly exercised by the revelation that Pakistan was giving nuclear weapons technology to North Korea, Libya and, yes, Iran. It was also the hiding place for Osama bin Laden when Barack Obama made good on Bush’s pledge to run the al-Qaida leader to ground… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Truthdig>
As much as the naysayers try to deny this, Obama has consistently attempted to resolve the nuclear issues with Iran short of war and to dissuade Israel from attacking that nation. Their threats to invade Iran are responsible for much of the destabilization of US relations with Iran. I have to wonder whether Israel’s preference for Republicans is behind this.
The bottom line is this. Democrats’ terrorism policies resulted in several foiled plots and the death of Osama bin Laden. Republicans’ terrorism policies resulted in death of over 3,000 Americans on 9/11. Republicans have no basis for calling Obama weak.
I suggest that Republicans’ real motivation is that nothing transfers wealth from the poor and middle classes to millionaires, billionaires and corporate criminals than war.
12 Responses to “Warmongering: the Next Republican Focus?”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Who needs facts when you have delusions of grandeur?
“Let the good times roll with a beefed-up military budget justified by plans to invade yet another Muslim country”…
We are tired of War… If Republicans want to fight, they should stick their head up their arse and fight for air…
Brilliant!
Too true!
We are tired of war– oh yes– We have lost so many of our young people– down a rathole with no end– Send some of the damm Repigs–
I have long supported a return to the draft, where there are no exemptions, no duck-outs into the national guard, and the the draft order is inversely proportional to family wealth. The richer the family, the sooner drafted. With the kids of millionaires, billionaires and corporate criminals first to do, war would end.
General Butler said that in War is a Racket, almost eighty years ago.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
I wistfully yearn for the day our greedy and criminal military/industrial complex learns to restrain itself.
As do I.
It has oft been said that there is ‘nothing like a good war to get the economy going’! Well if you believe that, then I guess you support the hawkist Republican/Teabaggers. All a war does other than kill and maim thousands upon thousands of people, soldiers and civilians, men, women and children, alike (bullets and shrapnel don’t know the difference) and destroy whole countries, is line the pockets of the millionaires, billionaires and their political proponents of the military-industrial complex.
Here’s a story I posted on Care2 about this very topic earlier today. http://www.care2.com/news/member/775377582/3113393
In a recent post, a friend of mine pointed out that no one has bothered to challenge Israel on its nuclear programme or capabilities. All the rhetoric is pointed at Iran, and of course, Ahmadinejad is only too willing to accommodate them with his saber rattling response.
Have a look at this link to Wikipedia and some information of Israel’s history with nuclear weapons, or weapons of mass destructioin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapons_and_Israel
The US, or any other nation for that matter, must not allow themselves to be sucked into the political vortex of WMD. Iraq in 2003 was pure folly predicated on lies resulting in a decimated nation and its people, not to mention coalition lives lost or transformed permanently. It would appear that the Israelis are trying to pull the US and others into its web for its own insane reasons. This cannot be allowed to happen. Unfortunately, the Republican/Teabagger hawkists seem all too willing to comply with Israel’s request of support.
From the article — ” . . . the elixir of warmongering to once again sway the gullible masses. The race to the bottom has been set by Newt Gingrich, the most desperate of the lot, who on Tuesday charged that “The president wants to unilaterally weaken the United States,” because his administration has dared question the wisdom of Israel attacking Iran and proposes a slight reduction in the bloated defense budget.”
Well it’s about time that someone questioned the wisdom of Israel attacking Iran!
Well said.
Zionist Israel, because of their power over the US political and Intel situations, has delusions of grandeur, definitely. They seem to think we’re an “owned asset,” something they can command and use any time they feel like it. We’re a weapon they can point and fire at any other country on earth. I wouldn’t mind it so much if it wasn’t so damned true! Some of their Premiers have said as much outright, even very recently. they are as insane as the super-wealthy who’ve been driving – or steering – the destruction of the U.S., and they are just as much sociopathic as well. Mark Twain suggest open Season on lawyers. I have another suggestion… The insane who’ve decided that ruling the world through the political processes they’ve taken over in other countries. Isn’t that enough, and more than? We the Workers of the planet do all the work. We get our hands dirty, our bones broken, our lungs polluted with coal powder, D.U. and other garbage, we build the buildings – and THEY reap the vast majority of the profits while we starve, while we try to survive all the poisons and deprivation they use to control us. It’s long past the time for us to severe this exceedingly detrimental connection. I can see no profit in it for us at all; only for them, and very much at our expense.
Ian