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Old Tricks from The Usual Old Dogs |
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Only 199 days left in the occupied White House for alienating our country from the rest of the world. That’s much too long, for anyone who wants to see U.S. interests served by our government as it was constituted to do.
In our insane conduct of policy toward Iran, in particular, the worst administration ever has demonstrated it cannot act rationally when the war criminals in high office get the bit in their teeth and smell an end coming to their freedom to conduct counterproductive militarism. Once again, the uglies in our government are supporting enemies of the very interests we claim we are promoting.
The cretin in chief’s speech yesterday claiming that we are offering freedom to Iraqis amounts to just so many lies.
The balancing act has become more difficult for Iraq since George Bush successfully requested $400m (£200m) from Congress last year to fund covert operations aimed at destabilising the Iranian leadership. Some of these operations are likely to be launched from Iraqi territory with the help of Iranian militants opposed to Tehran. The most effective of these opponent groups is the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), which enraged the Iraqi government by staging a conference last month at Camp Ashraf, north-east of Baghdad. It demanded the closure of the Iranian embassy and the expulsion of all Iranian agents in Iraq. “It was a huge meeting” said Dr Othman. “All the tribes and political leaders who are against Iran, but are also against the Iraqi government, were there.” He said the anti-Iranian meeting could not have taken place without US permission.
The Americans disarmed the 3,700 MEK militants, who had long been allied to Saddam Hussein, at Camp Ashraf in 2003, but they remain well-organised and well-financed. The extent of their support within Iran remains unknown, but they are extremely effective as an intelligence and propaganda organisation.
Though the MEK is on the State Department’s list of terrorist groups, the Pentagon and other US institutions have been periodically friendly to it. The US task force charged by Mr Bush with destabilising the Iranian government is likely to co-operate with it.
In reaction to the conference, the Iraqi government, the US and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have started secret talks on the future of the MEK with the Iraqi government pressing for their expulsion from Iraq. Dr Othman, who speaks to the MEK frequently by phone, said: “I pressed them to get out of Iraq voluntarily because they are a card in the hands of the Americans.”
An embarrassing aspect of the American pin-prick war against Iran is that many of its instruments were previously on the payroll of Saddam Hussein. The MEK even played a role in 1991 in helping to crush the uprising against the Baathist regime at the end of the Gulf war. The dissidents from Arab districts in southern Iran around Ahwaz were funded by Saddam Hussein’s intelligence organisations, which orchestrated the seizure of the Iranian embassy in London in 1980 which was supposedly carried out by Arab nationalists from Iran.
The record for supporting our own enemies has been pushed a little farther, again. The use of quasi military forces begs those temporary allies to arm and enrich themselves at our expense, all the while being ready and willing to turn against us when it suits their interests. An attack on Iran, or on Iran’s allies like, say, the Mahdi militia, is reason enough to spur such a turnaround.
Actually working for the American people will mean giving up militarist ambitions, and giving other nations some reason to be friends with us again. The factions we are serving now have no long-term reason to cultivate an association with the munitions addict that dominates the face we show to the world in the present state of our executive branch.
The U.S. has sacrificed a lot, its reputation is in tatters and it will take a lot of restaffing in high offices to regain all we’ve thrown away in the wars we have waged so poorly and so needlessly.
(This post also at http://cabdrollery.blogspot.com/ )
I don’t understand how Congress gets let off the hook. Is it because GW is such an easy target? There’s a reason members of Congress approved this money. Since GW can’t be trusted, why not ask them WHY?
You write:
“…its reputation is in tatters and it will take a lot of restaffing in high offices to regain all we’ve thrown away in the wars…”
How is the U.S. reputation in tatters?
And to whom is it in tatters?
(And what does it matter that it is in tatters? How has it hurt or affected you?)
What have we thrown away that we have to regain?
You write:
“…insane conduct of policy toward Iran…”
What is “insane” about the U.S. policy toward Iran?
Sally,Please open your eyes.Really,you can’t be that misinformed can you?
Oh,You get all your news from FOX? I get it now..
“He who does not study history is doomed to repeat it.”
US reputation is in tatters because the rest of the world looks at Bush and his war mongering accomplices as bullies who do what they want without regard for who it will affect and how. They are war criminals fighting an illegal undeclared war for profit of their own pockets and nothing else.
As for to whom…..to everybody. The current Bush regime has put all Americans in a bad light to the rest of the world even though it is the government who has done it the people of America unfortunately will suffer for it.
As for what it matters to anyone…..well how about the rise in the price of oil and devaluation of the dollar. These things are affecting people world wide.
What has been thrown away is US’s reputation as a fair and just country. I must say that this should not reflect on the citizens of the US as it is the fault of the policy makers.
What is insane with the policy t6owards Iran? Hello…….Iraq ring a bell? WMD’s that were never found. War profiteering, millions displaced and homeless, hundreds of thousands dead and permanantly disfigured including US soldiers. Like the world needs another war to put us in an even worse position than we are. Under the Non proliferation treaty Iran is legally allowed to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.
And funding MEK wtf? Don’t forget the US funded and trained Bin Laden to fight the Russians and look how he repayed them. Only a fool would think MEK won’t do the same. Bush is funding terrorists he is at war with. What an idiot.
Uh, no. I think you’ll find that America and Americans are loved by basically everyone - in the Iraq, they put out American flags because they love the freedom we’ve given them!
Sure, the French don’t like us, but the French are a bunch of loosers who sat by and did nothing in WWII.
Anyway - what’s the war and the reputation got to do with the dollar and gas? The dollar loosing value means nothing, just makes it harder for foriengers to afford to come to our country - GOOD RIDDANCE! And gas prices? They’re just up because the Iranians are sore, and they’ll be right back down after we bomb Iran!
The dollar losing value actually makes it easier for foreigners to come to our country and to buy up our infrastructure. Our money is worth less, so things here are cheaper in comparison.
Oh, and anti-American sentiment among most countries is at an all time high: http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?ReportID=247
Think back even further and go with the name Ho Chi Minh. Also on the US payroll at one time and look how he repaid the american people…. Remember the Vietnam War????
The only reason why the US reputation is damaged is because Democrats and the media suddenly decided that bashing your country is patriotic. Sure, feel free to disagree with policy–that’s great and healthy for a small-D democracy. They’ve taken it to a whole new low though. According to them, if you even contemplate that you might like some conservative ideas, you’re racist, sexist, “living in fear” whatever that means, and of course living in a trailer eating macaroni and cheese.
“Bush is funding terrorists he is at war with.” Its not only bush funding terrorists its every American, its every person in an industrialized nation. Every time you fill up your vehicle you put more money in the terrorists hands. It’s also sad to think that Sally J. is so closed minded to the problems of our nation. But what do you expect from someone educated in the American school system we can’t blame her.
But I do know what will fix all of our problems more medication from our friendly pharmaceutical companies cause we are suffering from “mental recession” as good old former Sen. Phil Gramm put it today (btw who is the top economic adviser to presumptive GOP nominee John McCain). %u201CYou’ve heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession. … We have sort of become a nation of whiners. You just hear this constant whining, complaining, about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline. … We’ve never been more dominant; we’ve never had more natural advantages than we have today.%u201D (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11658.html)
So Sally when you lose your job in the future remember to stop whining about it. When you can’t feed yourself don’t whine to the government cause you should have known better! Don’t whine that a quarter of your salary every year goes to fighting a war that has not solved anything. Don’t whine when you realize that had we just taken just 1 hours worth of money for the Iraq war ($7.4 million per hour) and put it towards education, health care, social security that we will never see or hell anything we would be in a much better place. And most of all don’t whine when your son / daughter or even yourself gets drafted to fight a war in Iran, cause if you don’t think we are close to war with them just wait until next week when they pass bill HR 362 to impose Naval blockades and other harsh measures on Iran. I mean even Dick Cheney thinks we will be the better fighters %u201Cwe can%u2019t let Israel go because, first of all, they don%u2019t have the firepower, we do. We have much more firepower. And secondly, if they go, we%u2019ll be blamed anyway.%u201D - Dick Cheney (http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/01/hersh-cheney-privately-says-he-wo uld-prefer-the-us-not-israel-strike-iran/) HR 362 (http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/08/10204/)
As a side note I do believe that we should be tough against Iran and they are a threat to the world. But to let ourselves as a nation allow the US to be the bully of the world is unacceptable. Had we not stretched our selves thin fighting in Iraq we could have easily laid down the law with Iran. These are just my thoughts take them as you wish… I’ll see you on the battle field in Iran.
I dont know much about this whole topic and dont claim too (just wanted to get that off to start). I just wanted to write a bit about the reputation part, as i am from Scotland so it’ll be more impartial. My point is that most people i know dont think too highly of America atm (for obvious reasons). Nothing personal, im sure you are all cool people and all. And for the most part im pretty sure most of the world hates America and Britain as well. Just thought an outside point of view would contribute. Oh and if someone replies and points out why im wrong or whatever then i won’t see it, i just stumbled onto this by accident =D
All I read is blah, blah, blah.
What country (other than Iran and other enemies of the U.S.) have said bad things about the United States?
@Mahatma who writes: “Sally,Please open your eyes.Really,you can’t be that misinformed can you?”
You can?t give one example, one proof of your position, you just make accusations.
All this negativity about the U.S. just comes from the media and people that are hoping to get a Democrat in as President.
@Edward who says: “Every time you fill up your vehicle you put more money in the terrorists hands.”
LOL. You are confused Edward.
Where does America bully the world? If America bullied the world, Americans would have gas for free and everyone else would pay $10 a liter.
Name one country that the US has been involved with in war and is running the government and the people (as in the way contries did in colonial times and the way the Soviets did it).
There are none.
Edward, A quarter of anybody?s salary does not go to finance any war in Iraq. (And if you think taxes are high now, wait until Obama gets in.)
Edward writes: “…so closed minded to the problems of our nation”
What are the problems of our nation that causes the U.S. reputation to be in “tatters” as the author of this blog claims?
Is it that you and some others simply don?t like George Bush or the United States? That is not a problem of the United States that is a problem with you. In 150 days there will be a new President, you think Iran is going to like the U.S. more? Are we running a popularity contest? Is that all that matters - which countries like the US the most?
It is interesting that not one person here could give any answers the questions I wrote in my first comment.
Like Bush or not, it’s hard to believe a relatively democratic regime change is happening in Pakistan. Musharraf impreached before George W… what a strange world!
http://mideastbymidwest.blogspot.com
George W. Bush%u2019s sentence-by-sentence speaking skills are deteriorating. Apparently, this may be due to a mental illness called %u201Cpresenile dementia.%u201D Bush may or may not be secretly still drinking heavily. Bush lied, and thousands of people died. Bush suffers from narcissism and megalomania. Moreover, Bush has been arrested three times. Bush was arrested for disorderly conduct. Bush was arrested for stealing. Bush was also arrested for a serious crime%u2014driving under the influence of alcohol. There are reasons to believe that Bush suffers from a learning disability. Bush%u2019s learning disability would explain a lot of things. All in all, Bush is a severely mentally ill individual. Bush is not fit to be the president of the United States.
Bush should be locked up.
Submitted by Andrew Yu-Jen Wang
B.S., Summa Cum Laude, 1996
Messiah College, Grantham, PA