“Barack Obama was a senator before he was president. He didn’t do much as a senator, but he did a couple of things, including one he was particularly proud
of. In fact, if you looked at his website before the primaries, he highlighted the fact that, during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 2006, he cosponsored a
Senate resolution demanding that the United States do nothing to impede Israel’s military actions until they had achieved their objectives and censuring Iran and
Syria because they were supporting resistance to Israel.”
–Noam Chomsky, in answer to a question from David Barsamian, in a piece at Antiwar.com, originally published by Tom Engelhardt, and excerpted from a new book by Chomsky, Power Systems.
Nothing to impede until Israel achieved it’s objectives?
Namely, killing 1000+ civilians and then turning around and hiding behind the hiding behind human shields argument.
Disproven by the US Army War College report.
I’m sure the Pritzkers were happy their senator boy voted that way, back in the day. As Hagel said, Obama is the best thing POTUS Israel since Truman. No matter how bad the economy, or Israel thumbing it nose at Obama, he will keep pouring more taxpayer dollers into Israel–there’s no longer daylight between the US Defense budget and aid to Israel. Aid to Israel will only increase, no matter how many jobless Americans exist–unless you count aid to Egypt, which might get cut if Obama decides the Egyptian military cannot off set the new Egyptian regime–aid to Egypt is slightly indirect aid to Israel.
I was watching Obama while he was in the Senate. Could never figure out where all of the PR hooey “hope and change” was coming from when he was running. While in the Senate he either sat on the fence or went along with the crowd most of the time. “hope and change” came from a stellar campaign team. While I worked my ass off for him because of Hillary’s vote for the Iraq war resolution (Senator Dick Durbin on the Senate intelligence committee voted against..should have been a clue) many of us were not that impressed but jumped on the bus anyway. Had worked on the Ohio Obama campaign and in Colorado. Was amazed by how many Republicans I met who were not only voting for Obama but working for him. They had just had it with how far right the Republican party had gone.
Phil hope you do a post on the rest of Chris Hayes Sunday program. Impressive panel discussions on the Hagel hearing
It’s worthwhile to remember how easily Israel manipulated a pretext in 2006–the capture of Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah–to pursue its key strategic goal–Hezbollah’s destruction: “In leaked testimony to the Winograd Committee investigating Israel’s mismanagement of the summer 2006 Lebanon war, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert admitted that the war had been carefully planned at least four months ahead of time…Facts such as that Hezbollah fired no rockets into Israel until after Israel’s savage aerial attacks…had begun, or that Israel had left unresolved for years the bitter issues of Lebanese prisoners of war and the occupation of the Shebaa Farms region, only generate more questions when one considers how easily negotiations could have defused growing tensions.” http://detailedpoliticalquizzes.wordpress.com/hezbollah-quiz/
As Chomsky might say, it is a clear indicator of the discipline of the US mainstream media that Hezbollah’s significant popularity among Shia and non-Shia in Lebanon is so unfathomable to Americans. How could Obama have voted in any other way in such a disciplined political environment?
Phil, have a care! Did you know that if you Google [Chomsky gatekkeeper] you’ll get bunches and bunches of “hits”? Now, what does that tell you, as if you didn’t know!