As I reported last month, speakers at AIPAC described Ahmadinejad as the "gift that keeps on giving." Now AIPAC is pushing a bill in the House for Iran sanctions that the Obama administration doesn't want, as it seeks to turn down the heat in the Middle East, and that will only play into Ahmadinejad's hands for Friday's election. Trita Parsi on Huffpo says the bill could tip the election in Ahmadinejad's favor:
This Congressional act will likely be seen as a provocation in Iran
- coming in the last crucial days before the elections. And if the Bush
administration's policies taught us anything, it's that confrontational
measures do not strengthen the moderates in the Middle East. It
strengthens the radicals. The timing couldn't be better for Ahmadinejad.
Obama is smarter than the right-wing portion of AIPAC.
Bloody mindedness and stupidity in action for any pressure group to push such a bill. Ask the question Who Benefits? The answer is not US Foreign Policy but rather the interests those agitating for another crazy war in the world. Where are the realists, the peacemakers and the sane members of Congress? Ahmadjinejad has serious rivals in Iran why not give them oxygen? Take them on President Obama.
But Congress is not.
I agree with John. Also, where are the journalists who will call a spade a spade. For AIPAC to lobby for such a bill right now, and for the press not to detail the Neocon warmongering and subversive motives behind it, is simply pathetic. Beyond the Pale.
COPOMAJO deals with the President. AIPAC has found that continually making Congress jump through hoops keeps Congress in practice for jumping through hoops at AIPAC command.
Not really. You left wingers keep thinking that Ahmedinejad is in charge and sets foreign policy. Foreign policy is set by the Mullah's. It doesn't matter who is elected in Iran.
aipac is bad news for america (aipacistan, lobro at xymphora). let us remember. this is a good start: October 24, 2003 Rockets, Napalm, Torpedoes & Lies Israel's Attack on the Liberty, Revisited by JEFFREY ST. CLAIR, counterpunch.org In early June of 1967, at the onset of the Six Day War, the Pentagon sent the USS Liberty from Spain into international waters off the coast of Gaza to monitor the progress of Israel's attack on the Arab states. The Liberty was a lightly armed surveillance ship. Only hours after the Liberty arrived it was spotted by the Israeli military. The IDF sent out reconnaissance planes to identify the ship. They made eight trips over a period of three hours. The Liberty was flying a large US flag and was easily recognizable as an American vessel. A few hours later more planes came. These were Israeli Mirage III fighters, armed with rockets and machine guns. As off-duty officers sunbathed on the deck, the fighters opened fire on the defenseless ship with rockets and machine guns.
cont A few minutes later a second wave of planes streaked overhead, French-built Mystere jets, which not only pelted the ship with gunfire but also with napalm bomblets, coating the deck with the flaming jelly. By now, the Liberty was on fire and dozens were wounded and killed, excluding several of the ship's top officers. The Liberty's radio team tried to issue a distress call, but discovered the frequencies had been jammed by the Israeli planes with what one communications specialist called "a buzzsaw sound." Finally, an open channel was found and the Liberty got out a message it was under attack to the USS America, the Sixth Fleet's large aircraft carrier.
cont Two F-4s left the carrier to come to the Liberty's aid. Apparently, the jets were armed only with nuclear weapons. When word reached the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara became irate and ordered the jets to return. "Tell the Sixth Fleet to get those aircraft back immediately," he barked. McNamara's injunction was reiterated in saltier terms by Admiral David L. McDonald, the chief of Naval Operations: "You get those fucking airplanes back on deck, and you get them back down." The planes turned around. And the attack on the Liberty continued.
After the Israeli fighter jets had emptied their arsenal of rockets, three Israeli attack boats approached the Liberty. Two torpedoes were launched at the crippled ship, one tore a 40-foot wide hole in the hull, flooding the lower compartments, and killing more than a dozen American sailors. As the Liberty listed in the choppy seas, its deck aflame, crew members dropped life rafts into the water and prepared to scuttle the ship. Given the number of wounded, this was going to be a dangerous operation. But it soon proved impossible, as the Israeli attack boats strafed the rafts with machine gun fire. No body was going to get out alive that way. After more than two hours of unremitting assault, the Israelis finally halted their attack. One of the torpedo boats approached the Liberty. An officer asked in English over a bullhorn: "Do you need any help?" The wounded commander of the Liberty, Lt. William McGonagle, instructed the quartermaster to respond emphatically: "Fuck you."
…but … but… they were rubber rafts and sight seeing planes. those anti semites aboard the u.s.s. liberty attacked us innocent jews with spf 15, hand waves, and stares. pure, ancient hatred of jews came out that june 8th, 1967. never forget, never forgive. always lie. always hate. always steal.
Y"ou left wingers keep thinking that Ahmedinejad is in charge and sets foreign policy" Yes, I wonder how anybody could possibly have got that impression? Anything to do with those who have spent every waking hour for the past few years proclaiming that he is the new Hitler?
RE: "Ahmadinejad loss could be bad news for AIPAC" A RELATED POST: "Neocons for Ahmadinejad", by Daniel Luban, 06/04/09 (EXCERPT) SOURCE – http://original.antiwar.com/luban/2009/06/04/hawk... SEE ALSO: “Neocons for Ahmadinejad”, By Daniel Luban, 06/04/09 (EXCERPT) At Wednesday’s Heritage Foundation conference on the Middle East peace process (which, as I wrote yesterday, was primarily devoted to pushing the almost-universally-scorned “three-state solution” for Israel-Palestine), Middle East Forum director Daniel Pipes made an unusually revealing comment while discussing Iran’s upcoming presidential elections. “I’m sometimes asked who I would vote for if I were enfranchised in this election, and I think that, with due hesitance, I would vote for Ahmadinejad,” Pipes said… ENTIRE POST - http://original.antiwar.com/luban/2009/06/04/hawk... PS. The Heritage event, which was sponsored by right-wing U.S. casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, came only two weeks after right-of-center Israeli parties hosted a similar conference in Jerusalem. SOURCE - http://original.antiwar.com/luban/2009/06/04/hawk...
UPDATE: "Congress Decides Against Aiding Ahmadinejad's Campaign (Ahmadinejad's Little Helpers)", by Trita Parsi, 06/08/09 (EXCERPT) The House of Representatives is no longer planning to vote on the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act of 2009 this week…. ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/trita-parsi/ahmadin...
True that the Mullahs control Iran, but it will be nice to have that short, dinner jacketed racist not coming to the United States to speak at Columbia University and the UN.
If you had bothered to read his speech in its entirety instead of just listening to the out-of-context, poorly translated snippets they played on the U.S. media, you might have a slightly different view.