Juan Cole: Bush’s Open-Mike Comments Leave Me ‘Trembling’

	<a href='http://www.truthdig.com/banners/www/delivery/ck.php?n=a9cd87eb&cb=839784933' target='_blank'><img src='http://www.truthdig.com/banners/www/delivery/avw.php?zoneid=1&cb=839784933&n=a9cd87eb' border='0' alt='' /></a>	May 19, 2013
		Text Size

Trending: chris hedges economy elizabeth warren politics robert scheer

Truthdigger of the Week: Sen. Angus King

Letter From Birmingham Jail

'SNL': Stefon's Farewell Features Anderson Cooper

The Lotto Symbolizes the False Promises of Barracuda Capitalism

Chilling: Arctic Tundra ‘Will Turn to Forest’

The Lotto Symbolizes the False Promises of Barracuda Capitalism
By Juan Cole

The IRS and the Real Scandal
By Robert Reich

Truthdigger of the Week: Sen. Angus King
By Alexander Reed Kelly

Letter From Birmingham Jail

Obama Unscathed by Scandals, Mayor Denies Smoking Crack, and More

Will Yahoo ‘Ruin’ Tumblr?

Flaring Violence Kills 130 People in Iraq in Three Days

Super PAC Suggests Rand Paul Is Running for President in 2016

The History That Birthed the Tsarnaev Boys

Factory Collapse Kills Two Workers in Cambodia

‘Left, Right & Center’: The White House Scandal Trifecta

Save Our Democracy: Buy the L.A. Times for $660 Million

‘The Daily Show’: Stewart Slams Hypocrites Cheney and Rumsfeld

Video Allegedly Shows Police Beating David Silva to Death

‘SNL’: Stefon’s Farewell Features Anderson Cooper

Act of Congress
By Jesse Eisinger

Daily Rituals
By Gabriel Thompson

The Girls of Atomic City
By Scott Martelle

The Questions Education Reformers Aren’t Asking

Dig led by Mike Rose

Gore Vidal: His Life and Legacy

Dig led by Truthdig Staff

Juan Cole: Bush’s Open-Mike Comments Leave Me ‘Trembling’

Posted on Jul 17, 2006

The University of Michigan professor and Middle East expert is horrified at Bush’s belief (caught on an open mike) that Hezbollah is entirely to blame for the violence wracking Lebanon, and that Syria could easily stop Hezbollah if it chose to do so. “It is an astonishingly simple-minded view of the situation…. I come away from it shaken and trembling.”

Juan Cole:

It is an astonishingly simple-minded view of the situation, painted in black and white and making assumptions about who is who’s puppet and what the Israeli motivations are. Israel doesn’t appear as a protagonist. It is purely reactive. Stop provoking it, and it suddenly stops its war.

Since Israel is just being provoked and has no ambitions of its own, in this reading, it is useless to begin with a ceasefire. That treats the two sides as both provoking one another. Here, only Hizbullah matters, so you lean on Syria to lean on it, and, presto, peace breaks out.

It is a little window into the superficial, one-sided mind of the man, who has for six years been way out of his depth.

I come away from it shaken and trembling.

Link

More Below the Ad

Advertisement

TAGS: cole hezbollah juan lebanon syria

Related Entries

Email to a friend

Get truth delivered to
your inbox every week.

Previous item: Scandal Battering Ralph Reed’s Hopes in Georgia

Next item: Israel Softens Stance on Cease-Fire Conditions

New and Improved Comments

If you have trouble leaving a comment, review this help page. Still having problems? Let us know. If you find yourself moderated, take a moment to review our comment policy.

By Lsjfffsj, September 19, 2006 at 12:57 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Report this

By David Allen, July 17, 2006 at 5:02 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

shaking and trembling huh? Make sure you eat dinner.

Well maybe the simple minded view that one terrorist backing government supporting a group of terrorist (who’s main purpose was to push Israel out of Lebanon)is not as intricate as you’d like it to be. I think it makes sense. The rockets were made in Syria from Iranian designs. Some are said to be Iranian rockets. Don’t let you anti semite prejudice obscur you judgement.

Report this

By harald hardrada, July 17, 2006 at 4:49 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

americans only have themselves to blame—the overwhelming majority were glad to see bush send the military into iraq—americans sat in their dens cheering as other folks’ kids did the dirty work—but things started going awry, so americans felt they’d been duped: not because bush had lied about wmd but because americans are front runners who stick around as long as the going is good

now the majority of americans can’t stand bush & care little about what israel does provided it doesn’t affect the price of oil, gas or gasoline

Report this

By r, July 17, 2006 at 2:29 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Indeed. Also, Bush is pushing the most recent Israeli lie that the rocket fire preceded the civilian bombing. Bush simply worships a foreign state and considers the Israeli leader to be God’s Deputy.

Worse than that is the reactions of other Western leaders. One would think they would know better than to cater to Israel. Take for instance this talk of a buffer zone. Why must it always be in Lebanon, why not in Israel. Israel is complaining, let them have a buffer zone in their own country.

Moreover, why is it always the Arabs who must surrender prisoners unconditionally, the so-called hostages, while the Israelis have the right to take and keep whatever hostages they like, and assassinate whomever they want wherever they want in whatever way they want.

One other point. What if Bush was correct and Assad really was behind all of this? Has everyone forgotten the Israeli sonic boom over Assad’s house? Have people also forgotten Israel’s criminal activities in Gaza?

They murdered a Hamas representative on June 8, they abducted a doctor whose wherabouts are unknown, they slaughtered that family on the beach, and then when they were subject to reprisal, they destroy the power plant and murder people in thes streets while maintaining a suffocating siege. These things alone justify anything done to Israel.

Remember in 2000, when they gunned down over 300 unarmed civilians in the name of restoring Israel’s “deterrence” and further justified this by citing the stingy “generous offer” that included an unprecedented two-dimensional so-called state. Then they were shocked, shocked that suicide bombers showed up, 300 dead later. When Sharon took power, it was the fault of those who were gunned down. He immediately broke off relations with the Preventative Security, then systematically bombed police stations and prisons and killed policemen and had the nerve to demand that the Palestinian police stop suicide bombers! The gutless Western leaders went along with this farce so transparent as to insult the intelligence of all.

Now the Lebanese army is being bombed as it’s being asked to start a civil war against Hezbollah. Again, the same insulting gutlessness from Western leaders. What about that illegal Resolution 1559, that violates the most fundamental part of the UN Charter, calling for sovereign equality of states? 1559 deals only with the internal arrangements of a state, a totally out of bounds issue for the Security Council. Notice that this resolution is supposedly to prevent threats to international peace and security when in fact it is this resolution that has spawned this aggressive war.

Resolution 1559 also would not have passed if not for the “new realities” that American leaders harped on after their aggression in Iraq. One aggression spawns another. Another evil of this resolution is the recent phenomenon of meddlesome outsiders demanding that fragile states rearrange themselves, risking civil wars. The Council of Europe is likewise perpetuating this evil with its demand that Bosnia scrap its constitution and its Dayton Agreement.

One last thing; Israel should not get anything out of this, so as to satisfy Bush the Elder’s immortal words; “Aggression must not be rewarded, principles must be upheld.”

Report this

By felicity smith, July 17, 2006 at 12:12 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

The Decider. The Leader of the Free World. The Leader of the most powerful nation the world has ever known. George Bush. We should all sleep well tonight.

Report this