Amidst New Push for War, a Push Back Against Netanyahu?
by William Skink
On almost every foreign front the U.S. is escalating, which I’m guessing is why Obama wants Congress to give him cover for the new war he’s already started with that old, dusty AUMF. Truthout frames it succinctly:
As President Barack Obama presented his proposed Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) to Congress, he declared, “I do not believe America’s interests are served by endless war, or by remaining on a perpetual war footing.” Yet Obama’s proposal asks Congress to rubber-stamp his endless war against anyone he wants, wherever he wants.
It’s kind of like how Obama said he ended the war in Afghanistan, but not really. I hope the new AUMF includes a new war against the various factions that have torn Libya apart after that little humanitarian thing that happened a few years ago. Go Hillary 2016 yeah!
I’m not breaking from the mediocre poetry I’ve been keeping myself to here just to toss the usual jabs, no, instead I must commend Obama for what looks like maybe could possibly be a significant push back against apartheid Israel being led by a man who may have finally over-played his hand.
Here’s Mark Gaffney via Counterpunch:
Finally. After many years of official hypocrisy, a US president appears to be playing hardball with Israel. The other day, the US government declassified a 1987 report documenting Israel’s secret nuclear weapons program.
I have been a critic of President Obama, but one has to admire the timing of the release which I suspect was ordered by the White House. Next month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to speak before Congress, at the behest of House speaker Boehner, and the topic of Netanyahu’s address reportedly will be Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program. The fact that neither Speaker Boehner nor the Israeli government first cleared the speech with the White House has become controversial, and for good reason. Several prominent members of Congress, among them Senator Leahy, have already indicated they will boycott the speech, which will be a transparent attempt at an end run around the president.
Israeli PM Netanyahu is a smooth talker, but he is in no position to lecture Iran or any other state about nuclear weapons. The just-declassified report shows up Netanyahu for what he is, a liar.
All sixteen US intelligence agencies agree there is no hard evidence that Iran is attempting to develop nuclear weapons. As a signatory of the nuclear non proliferation treaty, Iran’s nuclear power program is fully safeguarded by IAEA inspections. Israel by contrast is a rogue state that secretly developed nukes while thumbing its nose at the world. Israel has long refused to sign the NPT.
The declassified 1987 report indicates that from the 1980s on the US was well-informed about Israel’s hidden nuclear agenda. Israel’s nuke program is evidently a carbon copy of the US program.
We know that Israel smuggled nuclear technology (triggers, known as krytrons) out of the US, highjacked a ship on the high seas loaded with uranium ore, deceived US inspectors, and much more, all the while lying about its true intentions.
It also appears that Israel provided the IAEA with phony documents about Iran’s nuclear program.
Timing is everything in politics. With the report now public, Obama will be in a stronger position to apply pressure on Israel to sign the NPT and open its nuclear sites to IAEA inspectors; or face the prospect of losing US economic and military aid. Why? Because a US law (the Symington amendment of the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act) bars the US from giving aid to nations that engage in clandestine nuclear weapons proliferation. For many years, the US chose to ignore the law. But now that Netanyahu plainly intends to stir up trouble for Obama in Congress over Iran, the president has apparently decided to take off the kid gloves. If Obama follows through, and I hope he does, it will the smartest policy move of his presidency. The president deserves all the support that we the people can give him on this issue.
Damn. I wonder where this will go.
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4&20 blackbirds 
February 18, 2015 at 8:10 am
According to Holder we’re not at war.
“I’ll use an extreme example, perhaps unfair. In World War II, if a reporter had found out about the existence of the Manhattan Project, is that something that should have been disclosed? Now we’re not at a time of war, I understand, and I said, it’s an extreme example. But I think there is a question that members of the press should ask, about whether or not the disclosure of the information has a negative impact on the national security of the nation,” Holder said.
February 18, 2015 at 8:24 am
This will take you up a level in your understanding Swede: Any reporter who threatened to go public with something like Manhattan would have been murdered in some fashion to make it look like something else to the naive – heart attack, suicide, accident. The press in this country does not, cannot act independently. Once you grasp that, other things fall into place.
February 19, 2015 at 7:27 am
Really? FDR was a cripple yet you seldom see him in his chair.
Patriotic reporting did exist in the 40’s and I believe that there was some in the press who knew about Manhattan but because of their love of country refused to print.
A concept I’m sure you’ll have difficulty understanding.
February 19, 2015 at 10:12 am
How would’ve the printing of info about the Manhattan project changed the outcome of WWII in the Pacific theater?
Funny that you equate “love of country” with “patriotic reporting”, even when it fails to protect its rights under the first amendment.
Patriotism before the constitution. And here I thought you were a flag waving anarchist. This reeks of nationalism.
February 19, 2015 at 8:40 am
This is kind of typical in trying to have exchanges with you, as one Brit said, like “trying to pick up mercury with a fork.” I said nothing about “patriotic” reporting (your euphemism), but rather that if a reporter threatened to go public with vital information, such as Manhattan, he’d be quickly dispatched. I stand by that assertion, but it is unprovable and cannot be falsified either, so is useless. “Patriotic” reporters int eh early 60’s knew all about JFK’s philandering and kept that secret too. Only occasion ally, and with purpose, do such matters become public, as with Monica.
In fact, after formation of the CIA in 1947, the Agency set out to bring the American media under its influence, and by the 1970’s had as many as 400 “patriotic” personnel in place, many names you might recognize. NY Times, Time, Life, WaPo, AP were all under its effective control. Katherine Graham said very pointedly that the Agency need its secrets and that she would, as head of WaPo, keep them.
You like the Google, and you’re on your own, but do look up Paperclip and Mockingbird. The two words together will take you to places you’ve not been. Do avoid Wikipedia, as the same agents that have infiltrated the media would hardly let that enterprise go without monitoring it closely.
February 19, 2015 at 9:12 pm
Too bad ou didn’t live near the Utah testing grounds back in the 40’s Mark.
You could have called Tojo personally and told him what was coming.
February 20, 2015 at 7:01 am
The bomb was dropped 1) To demonstrate to the world that we had it and would use it, and 2) To forestall Russian entry into the closing days of the war. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were chosen because they were among the few cities still standing. Everything else had been fire bombed.
All of the estimates of American casualties in a land invasion (which you are probably running to Google as we speak) have one thing in common: No documentation. They made them up later to justify use of the bomb, a monstrous crime.
There were no good guys in that war. Talk radio does not tell you these things.
February 20, 2015 at 10:51 am
Telling Tojo would have been the humane thing to do, and would have separated us from those who committed atrocities and participated in the holocaust.
At least Tojo could have evacuated the cities. Would not the destruction of two cities with nukes been enough to bend Japan to our will, without killing over a 100,000 people — many innocent women and children — in one fell swoop?
February 20, 2015 at 11:28 am
If they were going to start sparing civilians, it woudl happened long before Hiroshima. The objective of the war by that time was civilian deaths.
ooops – just check Conservapedia. It says that all those Japanese who died in the fire bombings and atomic attacks committed mass suicide. It just happened to coincide with the bombings.
February 18, 2015 at 8:19 am
That article, even just the part you cite above, contains a wealth of material for unpacking the contradictions of Life in the USA. A person could spend weeks using it as the entry point into the mythology of our daily existence.
There’s a standard practice in American journalism whereby they major organs of state propaganda occasionally come clean, called “Now it can be told.” The idea is to release useful information long after it is actually useful. It makes it look like they do their job. So in 2003 NY Times might run stories on the coup d’état in Guatemala in 1953. In fact. I think they did. In 1953, when the information might have saved a few thousand innocent lives, they were silent.
Israel having nuclear weapons is like Barry Bonds taking steroids. Everyone except the journalists knows it. How they got them is academic, and it goes back not too the 1980’s, but to the 1960’s. So the question to ask now is why is the story surfacing now? Who is using it, and for what purpose? Israel is a scarecrow, in my view, easily controlled but useful in being able to be the bully in the block in cases where the US cannot openly do so. It’s our sock puppet, in my view.
So there is game afoot, a larger framework in which factions are playing against each other. Obama is not a player, but is a front man for one of these factions, the Neocons, in power since 2000 but recently openly attacked by Lesley Gelb of CFR, a sign of a split and perhaps foreshadowingregime change. Hmmmm …
February 20, 2015 at 3:36 am
Yo, dipshit, Israel has nukes and that is the only thing that has kept them safe in a world of regimes that exist to destroy them.
There are a lot of people out there that prop up the
bullshit by blaming it on the Jooos. like you, Mark. You hep with hating the Joos, Mark.
Let me ask you Mark, would you if you had a choice commit cultural suicide.
I’ll be curious to see if you even reply.
February 20, 2015 at 6:55 am
Read histroy. You don’t know anything of Israel. Talk radio don’t get it done.
February 18, 2015 at 8:25 am
Is this not SOP?http://zfacts.com/metaPage/lib/1996_07_IASPS_Clean_Break.pdf
The dilemma for the US/EU is this: ISIS cannot be controlled without boots on the ground. Will it be a proxy-combo of Syrian army troops and shia fighters from Iraq and Lebanon, or will the US/EU invade?
Anglo-Zionist dreams of Syrian regime change are on hold, for now. Poor Bebe, he has an election coming up. But the boss wants him to do a 180.
“Orban, Zeman, Berlusconi, Strauss-Kahn and now Merkel – they have all become targets for US precision strikes delivered by information weapon against those European politicians have become too independent on foreign policy issues according to Washington’s opinion.” http://www.voltairenet.org/article186771.html
The boss usually gets what he wants. Poor Bebe has an election coming up. The boss wants him to do a 180. Rock and a hard place. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Just to be clear, Obama/Kerry deliver messages from the boss, nothing more.
February 18, 2015 at 8:50 am
That’s a great article by Voskresensky. There appears to be mutiny among heads of State in the European Union, and exposire of Merkel as a neo-Nazi follows the line as something well known, if not discussed, but why talk about it now?
Obama: “We occasionally have to twist the arms of countries that wouldn’t do what we need them to do.” People assume he is talking about official enemies without realizing that the powers in the U.S. regar all foreign states as potential enemies.
February 18, 2015 at 10:30 am
This article is dated, but illustrates the “divisions” within the CFR. Clearly, something’s up. Are we nearing an historical fork in the road? Or perhaps the dead end of a long road to nowhere.
“The largest single group in the CFR is the corporate business community, which makes up 31 percent of the CFR membership, with the academic community in second place with 25 percent. The balance of CFR members are employed in the nonprofit sector, government, law, and journalism. The business community is also the source of most of CFR’s financial support, with hundreds of top U.S. corporations giving them from $15,000 to $50,000 every year. Among corporations who gave at least $25,000 during the 2004-2005 year were Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, BP plc, Amerada Hess, Chevron, Halliburton-KBR, Marathon Oil, Occidental Petroleum, Shell Oil, Kuwait Petroleum, Schlumberger Limited, and Aramco Services.
In terms of membership, the densest network of corporate ties to CFR are from the New York multinational corporate community. The CFR has also always had a close relationship with key federal government departments. Noteworthy for the purposes of an understanding of torture and abuse by the U.S. government is the close long-term ties between CFR and the CIA, along with extensive ties to the U.S. military. The CFR has had at least 14 CIA directors among its members, along with many other top CIA and intelligence leaders. A review of CFR membership lists finds that at least 20 current U.S. generals and admirals are also members of the Council.
Viewed in ideological terms, there are four key groups among the CFR membership.” http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Foreign_Policy_Institutions/CFR_Debates_Torture.html
February 18, 2015 at 10:49 am
Such powerful people naturally gather and exchange ideas, and the idea that there is unilateral agreement in such bodies is illogical. Anyone, you and I and the guy at the water cooler, can subscribe to Foreign Affairs, its main publication. I did at one time, but it was frighteningly boring for my taste.
Quigley claimed that CFR was a subcommittee of the British Round Table, a similar gathering of power of far more influence when the Empire stood intact. Fuller said that the major economic force of the time, British East India Company, merely set up new offices here after 1776, blending in as easily with the new country as the old. So the upshot is that democratic governance, an illusion in 1776, is still so.
February 18, 2015 at 12:43 pm
“Neither Assad nor ISIS is in imminent danger of falling, and it will be challenging to impose any kind of order in Syria. But the United States should not repeat the mistake it made in Iraq and Libya of pushing for regime change absent a plan to fill the resulting
vacuum.”
by Max Boot, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow in national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. http://www.cfr.org/iraq/defeating-isis/p33773
February 20, 2015 at 2:38 am
Steve, check your paranoia, if you think 25 grand buys anything in DC, you have zero understanding of what goes on there.
February 18, 2015 at 10:13 pm
You guys are making it too simple – the fact is that Obama is a pussy, and that is the reason for his foreign policy failures.
If Libya, Yemen, Egypt, Syria, and Iraq are just the beginning, God help us all.
February 18, 2015 at 10:21 pm
American foreign policy is a result of pressure brought about by and between various powerful factions, including oil giants, agricultural and food mega corporations, banking interests and military weapons manufacturers (“defense”) and others. The president has hardly anything to do with it. Congress either. They are just there to make you think your vote matters.
End of lesson.
February 20, 2015 at 3:05 am
Your fantasy, we will all stay out of it Mark….your are flat ass delusional. You decry the entities that enable us to have the highest standard of living in the world. The poorest among us have HD TV’s , internet access, mobile phones and free food.
How does that compare to the average Libyan. C’mon Mark, fill us in with your dipstickian logic.
Show me one cite where an evil corporation is taking food from the mouths of babes.
I actually agree with you that government fucks up whatever it touches, my proposal is less government, yours is more of the same which goes back to that quote about history repeating itself.
Read some history Mark, you know not what are babbling about, I realize you are a clueless kid, get some edumacation and come back when you have a clue bro. Until then you just look stupid.
February 20, 2015 at 6:54 am
I love it when you faith-based folks who have never read or tried to understand history step up and tell me I am delusional and that I should read history. Try me, some time, dude. Try me. Judging from what you wrote here, I suspect every idea you own was implanted by talk radio.
February 18, 2015 at 11:33 pm
you are that far gone. it’s instructive, so thank you for sharing.
February 19, 2015 at 10:05 am
What would you have Obama do?
February 19, 2015 at 8:07 pm
Go on the defensive, secure our borders, and wherever there are American interests we have boots on the ground to stomp ISIS real good.
February 19, 2015 at 8:37 pm
Gotta keep it simple, right? Really simple.
February 20, 2015 at 10:55 am
More whack-a-mole, eh? That’ll get ‘er done!
February 20, 2015 at 11:55 am
Look wider. Much coming down the pike. http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/
February 20, 2015 at 12:26 pm
If you’re going to read Graeme Wood, at least read the blowback his article created. This is incredibly complex material for the average white ‘merican christian to wrap his head around. Read widely, and be critical and open minded…
February 22, 2015 at 12:40 pm
Then there is the blowback to the blowback. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/20/will-it-take-the-end-of-the-world-for-obama-to-recognize-isis.html
February 22, 2015 at 2:38 pm
I would think that Obama is carefully parsing his words here. Does he want to talk about a war on Islam doctrine — thus a christian jihad? Or just a continuation of the Bush doctrine in the war against “terror”?
When do we start talking about american empire expansion as a neo-crusade?
February 20, 2015 at 1:35 pm
ISIS is suspicious, born as an adult and fully financed, up to its ears in all the weapons it ever hoped for, oil stolen from oil companies without repercussions, torture videos going right to the front of the line on American TV to make us good and scared. (Remember, we were not allowed to see Abu Ghraib images on TV because they were too gruesome, yet when ISIS does it, they American media serenades us with beheading videos)
It all, to me, smells of CIA. The Agency is now big enough to run its own armies, disrupt entire countries and economies (as it is doing to Venezuela right now), and manage its own foreign policy. I would suspect that behind ISIS is CIA/MI6/Mossad, but I repeat myself.
February 22, 2015 at 6:19 am
“Islam in Man is like rabies in a dog.” — Winston Churchill
February 22, 2015 at 7:25 am
This spaketh one of the greatest war criminals of the 20th century, and the field is broad and rich with candidates.
February 22, 2015 at 3:35 pm
In your and Obama’s mind.
King Putt did send the bust of Churchill back to England.
February 22, 2015 at 4:00 pm
I base my views on evidence. You are faith-based. One of us is rational, one not. Those who are not reasoned in cannot be reasoned out, so I do not expect your views about anything to change, ever.
February 23, 2015 at 8:05 am
Back at ya.
February 23, 2015 at 8:25 am
In 1988 you and I would have seen eye to eye on most matters. My views changed and have continued to evolve. You are still stuck in the Cold War. End of story.
February 23, 2015 at 2:38 pm
Looks like the PLO and the PA have lost huge for supporting terrorism. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/24/nyregion/damages-awarded-in-terror-case-against-palestinian-groups.html?_r=0
February 23, 2015 at 6:25 pm
I wonder how much the Palestinians could win in court over the land Israel has stolen from them, all of the infrastructure destroyed, and the tens of thousands of their people killed by Israeli “terrorists”? The case you quote is peanuts if you wanted to really stack it all up.
February 23, 2015 at 7:54 pm
What you say is true, JC, but it doesn’t matter. Belief trumps truth. People are odd that way, cherishing lies and scorning truth.