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 The Next QuagmirePosted on Sep 3, 2007
By Chris Hedges The most effective diplomats, like the most effective intelligence officers and foreign correspondents, possess empathy. They have the intellectual, cultural and linguistic literacy to get inside the heads of those they must analyze or cover. They know the vast array of historical, religious, economic and cultural antecedents that go into making up decisions and reactions. And because of this—endowed with the ability to communicate and more able to find ways of resolving conflicts through diplomacy—they are less prone to blunders.
To make rational decisions in international relations we must perceive how others see us. We must grasp how they think about us and be sensitive to their fears and insecurities. But this is becoming hard to accomplish. Our embassies are packed with analysts whose main attribute is long service in the armed forces and who frequently report to intelligence agencies rather than the State Department. Our area specialists in the State Department are ignored by the ideologues driving foreign policy. Their complex view of the world is an inconvenience. And foreign correspondents are an endangered species, along with foreign coverage.
We speak to the rest of the globe in the language of violence. The proposed multibillion-dollar arms supply package for the Persian Gulf countries is the newest form of weapons-systems-as-message. U.S. Undersecretary of State
The arrogant call for U.S. hegemony over the rest of the globe is making enemies of a lot of people who might be predisposed to support us, even in the Middle East. And it is terrifying those, such as the Iraqis, Iranians and Syrians, whom we have demonized. Empathy and knowledge, the qualities that make real communication possible, have been discarded. We use tough talk and big weapons deals to communicate. We spread fear, distrust and violence. And we expect missile systems to protect us. “Imagine an Iranian government that was powerful, radical, and in possession of nuclear weapons; imagine the threat that would pose to Israel and to the American-led balance of power, which has been so important in the Middle East since the close of the Second World War,” Burns said in a speech at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston last April 11. “That is our first challenge.” “Our second challenge is that Iran continues to be the central banker of Middle East terrorism,” he went on. “It is the leading funder and director of Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine general command. Third, Iran is in our judgment a major violator of the human rights of its own people; it denies religious, political, and press rights to the people of a very great country representing a very great civilization. And so we see a problem that is going to be with us for a long time, and we are trying to fashion a strategy that will work for the long term.” George W. Bush’s latest salvo, on Aug. 28, was more of the same. “Iran’s active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust,” he said. Bush warned that the United States and its allies would confront Iran “before it is too late.” These kinds of words, pouring out of the administration, send a clear message to any Iranian: You are in trouble. Bend to our will or we destroy you. These were the same words, with a few minor changes, that the Bush administration delivered to Saddam Hussein, who, despite numerous compromises, including letting the U.N. inspectors back into his country, was overthrown and put to death during a U.S. occupation. And the Iranians know that without the bomb, which no intelligence agency thinks they can produce for a few years, they are now probably going to be attacked. The Pentagon has reportedly drawn up plans for a series of airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran. The air attacks are designed to cripple the Iranians’ military capability in three days. The Bushehr nuclear power plant, along with targets in Saghand and Yazd, the uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, a heavy-water plant and radioisotope facility in Arak, the Ardekan Nuclear Fuel Unit, and the uranium conversion facility and nuclear technology center in Isfahan, will all probably be struck by the United States and perhaps even Israeli warplanes. The Tehran Nuclear Research Center, the Tehran molybdenum, iodine and xenon radioisotope production facility, the Tehran Jabr Ibn Hayan Multipurpose Laboratories, and the Kalaye Electric Co. in the Tehran suburbs will also most likely come under attack.
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By Andre, September 5, 2007 at 7:51 pm # Let them eat cake
By MAR, September 5, 2007 at 6:38 pm # I have read some of the posts but do not have the patience to read all to see if anyone has hit the real truthdig. What it is all about is that the fat contracts in the aftermath will go to the Haliburton Corp and other corporations friendly to the elite (Bushes) to reconstruct the postwar mess - if they even “win.” Just as the same companies got the contracts after New Orleans and after Iraq. It is not about democracy but feathering the nest of corporate America who support the Republicans. And it may be a payoff to Saudi Arabia -= fight their wars to defend oil. Americans have been brainwashed to believe that any move to a social democracy and income distribution is unpatriotic or “communism,” or some such rubbish. Hence your non-health care system and your wars in Viet Nam, Iraq and elsewhere that are posited on the idea of spreading democracy but are really spreading hate against the wealthy West. I believe I am a conservative in my country but next to the Republican corporatism but I must appear to be a socialist. I support universal health care and Keynesian income distribution rather than the economics of selfishness of the University of Chicago and Milton Friedman’. Shame on America. One of the few decent Americans of note appears to be Bill Gates and his friends who have their own income distribution system. America had a period of greatness after Roosevelt and until Reagan. No more - it seems now to be a country led by a dyslectic moron whose strings are pulled by evil geniuses now leaving the sinking ship like the rats they are.
By George, September 5, 2007 at 3:44 pm # It was about the oil then, and it’s still about the oil. The next few weeks and months will be critical.
By GodSend, September 5, 2007 at 8:44 am # TAO Walker: You make some excellent points! What, exactly, is going on HERE and NOW and what is worth saving? SEE! The Puzzle solved at: and click on “We Shall Overcome” in the Prophecies section. Indians are invited!
By deliverance, September 4, 2007 at 10:33 pm # I live in Idaho and I am having a difficult time writing to senator footsie on this piece of toilet paper. Don’t think for a moment that Craig’s actions are off topic. They are symptomatic of the corruption which flushes Americans’ wishes, rights and children down the toilet. As the arresting officer said “embarrassing, no wonder everything is going down the tubes”.
By Stogo, September 4, 2007 at 7:35 pm # Tom Dalzell is a rightwing troll. What he conveniently forgets to mention is that when Saddam was killing those people he was America’s best friend. Thats why he ignored all those nasty letters from Amnesty Int. If he spent a little bit time away from the Limbaugh/Oreilly/Hannity kool aid he might grow a brain. Ala Cheney, go f**k yourself. lilmamzer, How much are they paying you to shed your brain cells? If you weren’t such a punk, you’ll have enlisted now and be on your way to Iraq where a sample of what will happen in Iran awaits you. They are even offering 20 grand to sign up and ship out. So waht are you waiting for? Sign up and go fight or shut the f**k up.
By aileench, September 4, 2007 at 3:51 pm # I would like see presidential candidates support global poverty, we see that the focus of most candidates has been “fighting” immigration but I believe that global poverty and immigration have to do with the same core issue. If we focused on fighting global poverty there would be less need for people to leave their countries in search of a better future.
By toddy, September 4, 2007 at 2:16 pm # Wake Up America.......911 was a Inside Job....Carried out by our own criminal government!....Time is running out!
By towanda, September 4, 2007 at 1:00 pm # This is insane!!!!!!Wake up people!!!!!!wake up!!!! A new conciseness is developing what see’s the earth as a single organisim, and reconizes, that an organism at war with itself is doomed.” We are all humans and should treat each other humanly and with careing.
By GodSend, September 4, 2007 at 8:37 am # NO!, ocjim - it’s those inhuman Zionist bastards that are to blame for the world’s troubles (including America’s)! Americans have been intentionally deceived for decades, if not longer.
By trank, September 4, 2007 at 6:20 am # “But we live in an age where dialogue is dismissed and empathy is suspect. We prefer the illusion that we can dictate events through force.” this version of America is the result of twenty years of uncontested repetition by the fascist wing of the republican party made possible when reagan killed the Fairness Doctrine and ignored by progressives because listening to and monitoring the blowhards with the microphone gave them a headache. all over the country one unwise jerk with the biggest microphone in the state can undo the work of tens of thousands of local citizens, not to mention on the national scale. just like with iraq, unqualified supreme court justices, the rediculous idea that bush should be allowed anywhere near a government position, and shredding of the constitution, attacks on iran will be sold and largely enabled by the uncontested repetition of GOP talking points by your local talk radio station. tens of millions all over the country get the lies and exaggerations pounded in every day, enabling their repetition in the rest of the MSM, supporting bush’s sycophant politicians, and threatening the opposition. limbaugh, hannity, and co ARE the flavor of America and that progressives have ignored it is the biggest political blunder in recent history. until progressives begin waving their signs at the local talk mega station and boycotting the the sponsors of the attack-iran chickenhawks bush’s fools will still think they have the upper hand and the wind at their backs.
By Traveler, September 4, 2007 at 5:22 am # The Bush regime practises 19th century politics in the 21st century. Israel does definitely not profit from America’s policy.
By Finntroll, September 4, 2007 at 5:11 am # Check out that picture. That might be the most dangerous formation I have ever seen. We see three women with AK-47’s. Only the one in the middle has the safety on, and the woman on the right has her rifle set to full auto! :D
By Foppe Dykstra, September 4, 2007 at 2:51 am # My idea is that the world may see itself as lucky if the USraeli attack on Iran remains limited to the ME. Some 100 nuclear warheads are missing from the Ukraine since about 1990, it is asserted, as well as that Iran needed some fifteen years to crack the codes of the bombs. Iranian nuclear warheads on Israel are quite likely to cause massive Israeli retaliation from the Israeli doomsday planes and whatever. The last item in this sequence is what Nevil Shute described in his 1963 novel On the Beach, the issue of suicide pills after a nuclear war on the northern hemisphere, to the complete New Zealand population.
By Tom Dalzell, September 3, 2007 at 9:27 pm # Chris, You’re kidding right? You think dipolmacy solves all problems of the human race. Your problem is that you’re incapable of believing that evil people do exist in this world and that they’ll use force to get what they want or to force their regime upon you. You’re so screwed up that I’ll bet my last dollar that you just read the above and concluded I must be talking about the USA (as the aggressor). Amenisty Int’l spent 10 years sending nasty letters to Saddam. A lot of good that did, other than make the ever so noble people at AI feel good about themselves, meanwhile, about 1.5 million died due to Saddam. Where were the world’s Liberals when Pol Pot slaughtered about 1 in 4 of his own people. Proportionally, that would be the equivalent of killing every man, woman and child from NYC to Atlanta. Oh, before you go there, I’ve already heard the twisted theory that it was all because Nixon gave arms to Pol Pot. The bottom line tha Lib’s never want to talk about is that more people died in Southeast Asia AFTER the USA left. Yep, it turns out that the Commies did exactly what we warned - they slaughtered their own people. Yep, hippies danced while millions died. You gave peace a chance and got nothing but death and misery. Good going! Chamberlain returned from meeting with Hitler and proclaimed “peace in our time”, and 50 million deaths later we did have peace; thanks largely to the overwhelming might of the USA and its allies (a quick nod to all the commies who inhabit this site - yes, I acknowledge the contribution made by Stalin’s Soviet Union - though honestly I think old Joe simply got bored slaughtering his own people and wanted to kill nazis for a change). An lets not forget the Rape of Nanking. Maybe your overwhelming powers of empathy and understanding would have enabled you to grasp the obvious that Imperial Japanese was a brutual, racist expansionist imperialist warmonger. I guess you think that the perfect turn of a diplomatic phase would have stopped the slaughter. Dream on Liberals! But just remember that while you’re having your wonderful daydream, millions are dying in the world’s killing fields. I guess that’s OK with you, because, after all, you still get to feel really, really, good about yourself. Damn, those evil American armed forces and their fascist leaders, if not for America the world would be a peaceful paradise. WRONG. Reagan had it right. America is the shinning beacon on the hill. The terrible truth that Libs have such trouble admitting is that America is the greatest force for good in the world. Add Your Comment |
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9/11 and its aftermath cover-up is the perfect demonstration of just how deceived and brainwashed the vast majority of Americans are. 
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