Iran and the coming of World War III… Huh?

Reprinted from Newsweek Written by Fareed Zakaria

At a meeting with reporters last week, President Bush said that “if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing [Iran] from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.” These were not the barbs of some neoconservative crank or sidelined politician looking for publicity. This was the president of the United States, invoking the specter of World War III if Iran gained even the knowledge needed to make a nuclear weapon.

The American discussion about Iran has lost all connection to reality. Norman Podhoretz, the neoconservative ideologist whom Bush has consulted on this topic, has written that Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is “like Hitler … a revolutionary whose objective is to overturn the going international system and to replace it in the fullness of time with a new order dominated by Iran and ruled by the religio-political culture of Islamofascism.” For this staggering proposition Podhoretz provides not a scintilla of evidence.

Here is the reality. Iran has an economy the size of Finland’s and an annual defense budget of around $4.8 billion. It has not invaded a country since the late 18th century. The United States has a GDP that is 68 times larger and defense expenditures that are 110 times greater. Israel and every Arab country (except Syria and Iraq) are quietly or actively allied against Iran. And yet we are to believe that Tehran is about to overturn the international system and replace it with an Islamo-fascist order? What planet are we on?

When the relatively moderate Mohammed Khatami was elected president in Iran, American conservatives pointed out that he was just a figurehead. Real power, they said (correctly), especially control of the military and police, was wielded by the unelected “Supreme Leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Now that Ahmadinejad is president, they claim his finger is on the button. (Oh wait, Iran doesn’t have a nuclear button yet and won’t for at least three to eight years, according to the CIA, by which point Ahmadinejad may not be president anymore. But these are just facts.)

In a speech last week, Rudy Giuliani said that while the Soviet Union and China could be deterred during the cold war, Iran can’t be. The Soviet and Chinese regimes had a “residual rationality,” he explained. Hmm. Stalin and Mao—who casually ordered the deaths of millions of their own people, fomented insurgencies and revolutions, and starved whole regions that opposed them—were rational folk. But not Ahmadinejad, who has done what that compares? One of the bizarre twists of the current Iran hysteria is that conservatives have become surprisingly charitable about two of history’s greatest mass murderers.

If I had to choose whom to describe as a madman, North Korea’s Kim Jong Il or Ahmadinejad, I do not think there is really any contest. A decade ago Kim Jong Il allowed a famine to kill 2 million of his own people, forcing the others to survive by eating grass, while he imported gallons of expensive French wine. He has sold nuclear technology to other rogue states and threatened his neighbors with test-firings of rockets and missiles. Yet the United States will be participating in international relief efforts to Pyongyang worth billions of dollar.

We’re on a path to irreversible confrontation with a country we know almost nothing about. The United States government has had no diplomats in Iran for almost 30 years. American officials have barely met with any senior Iranian politicians or officials. We have no contact with the country’s vibrant civil society. Iran is a black hole to us—just as Iraq had become in 2003.

The one time we seriously negotiated with Tehran was in the closing days of the war in Afghanistan, in order to create a new political order in the country. Bush’s representative to the Bonn conference, James Dobbins, says that “the Iranians were very professional, straightforward, reliable and helpful. They were also critical to our success. They persuaded the Northern Alliance to make the final concessions that we asked for.” Dobbins says the Iranians made overtures to have better relations with the United States through him and others in 2001 and later, but got no reply. Even after the Axis of Evil speech, he recalls, they offered to cooperate in Afghanistan. Dobbins took the proposal to a principals meeting in Washington only to have it met with dead silence. The then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, he says, “looked down and rustled his papers.” No reply was ever sent back to the Iranians. Why bother? They’re mad.

Last year, the Princeton scholar, Bernard Lewis, a close adviser to Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal predicting that on Aug. 22, 2006, President Ahmadinejad was going to end the world. The date, he explained, “is the night when many Muslims commemorate the night flight of the Prophet Muhammad on the winged horse Buraq, first to ‘the farthest mosque,’ usually identified with Jerusalem, and then to heaven and back. This might well be deemed an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and if necessary of the world” (my emphasis). This would all be funny if it weren’t so dangerous.

© Newsweek, Inc.

 

Commentary from MJ “revoltingpawn”…

I had to post this article since felt there has been a lack of common sense and reporting of facts from the media in regards to Iran. Fareed Zakaria you are breath of fresh air on the Iranian situation and I am hoping more people will read this article. My questions are… Are the American people gullible enough to believe another set of lies from the Bush administration as we beat the war drum once again? Will the mainstream media again be a willing accomplice for another possible Bush manufactured war? Let’s hope we have different outcome with Iran then what happened in Iraq.

Some Political Humor for this Election Day…

Since there is not much happening this Election Day here is couple of comics to make you laugh. To view just “click” on the image.

Boondocks by Aaron McGruder

Dilbert By Scott Adams

FoxTrot by Bill Amend

Get Fuzzy by Darby Conley

The Modern World by Tom Tomorrow

PHD Comics by Jorge Cham

Sutton Impact by Ward Sutton

Please get off your ass and vote tomorrow!

Tomorrow is election day and while maybe it is an off year in the political cycle, we still can’t afford to be indifferent in these troubling times. If you look at our byline on our blog title it reads… “Who really controls your government?” Matthew and I have argued on our radio show in the past on what that means. Matthew seems to think special interests and corporations have so much power now that our vote counts for little. I agree that the voice of the people has been weaken over the years but its the same special interests and corporations who would like you to think your vote does not matter!

I think a good chunk of the people who do not vote are not simply apathetic to politics. Many of the people who write political blogs and comment on other like blogs do not vote! I believe George Bush was elected twice because to many free thinkers and independent voters have dropped out of the election process. Democracy does not happen during an online flame war, but in the voting booth.

It’s not to late to get up on the issues and candidates whether for the local school board or the higher offices. The online site of most mainstream newspapers or better yet your local alternative newspaper will have a listing of what races are being held, what the issues are and who they are endorsing. The League of Women Voters is another great resource for help on election day.

This vote is just a warm up for the 2008 Presidential Election. During the coming year Shadow Democracy will be posting information on voter registration drives, election reform ideas, and of course continuing our rants of unique political opinion along the way.

It’s the people who control our government and lets not forget by voting tomorrow!

Taser this: Fuck Bush – Yeah I just said that…

“Click” on image to enlarge

OK…I do say ‘FUCK BUSH’ all the time, but the publishing credit for the “Taser this” tag line goes to David McSwane. He is the editor-in-chief of The Rocky Mountain Collegian, the Colorado State University’s student newspaper. The CSU Board of Student Communications did admonish but not fire McSwane. You can read all about that at CNN – so they do understand First Amendment rights and that the student newspaper is not a professional publication. Unfortunately, the college Republicans failed to understand that and tried to have McSwane fired by circulating a petition.

You can read student comments about the editorial at the The Collegian online. Please read on down the page… Many of the comments are very scary like the gentlemen who would like to see McSwane jailed for three years to “teach” him a lesson. He is a real friend of the free press, as you can see. Shocked at the comments from current and former military personal who, for some odd reason, equate criticizing Bush with dissing the military. Guys, George led us into a war soaked in lies, that we are stuck in for the foreseeable future, then proceeds to cut veteran aid. He is the most pathetic supporter of the troops I have ever seen.

Not to worry – enlightened CSU students did a good job of countering those arguments. However, I would like to touch upon some of the comments regarding the showing of respect for the Commender-in-Chief.

In my opinion, the mainstream media and common people in general, have been showing to much respect for George. If the press and more people had spoke up earlier, we would not be trapped in Iraq, having to endure four more years of Bush, while watching him try to block health care for kids for God’s sake! I have said more than once on our radio show that besides impeachment, Bush should stand trial for war crimes and I will never back away from that position. If the Republicans had stopped and smelled the coffee they would not be looking at losing more seats in Congress, and the presidency next year.

When I was watching President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, speaking in NYC little over week ago, I couldn’t help but think he was a Bush clone! They both have the same mix of arrogance, ignorance, misleading ideology, and not to mention record of civil rights abuses, toward their own people. I know am not the only one who can see this. If only one of the many news commentators covering the speech had the guts to also make that comparison, maybe more people would pay a bit more attention to Bush’s destructive policies..

So people like McSwane, Andrew Meyer (the one who started “Don’t taser me“), Cindy Sheehan, myself, and countless others are going to have to speak up. Even the people who may be rude and crude about it. Maybe Mr. Bush and his few loyalists who are left will get the hint that we are not going to lay down anymore and just take it.

Once more with love…Fuck Bush!

Get government out of the marriage business!

Before addressing the title of this post I’d like to give a little background on why I wrote this. The Republican Party, for many years, seems to have no concern for the trade or budget deficits, the health care crisis, the declining middle class, or even border security. The three main campaign platforms they use to rally their base are gun control, flag burning, and of course, gay marriage. Now people have said that they think I am homophobic – I tend to disagree and just think I am an enthusiastic heterosexual individual. What I do believe in is equal protection under the law for everyone, which is fundamental to our Constitution. So the question is – how can we extend marriage to everyone and get the conservative Christians to go along with it?

To start with, I think we need look at the current situation. Under the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, marriage is explicitly defined as a union of one man and one woman – federal law does not recognize same-sex marriage. This leaves it up to the states to define marriage, each in it’s own way. Since 2004 only the State of Massachusetts recognizes same-sex marriages, while nine states and the District of Columbia grant legal unions which allow for varying rights regarding same-sex couples. On the other hand, 26 states have constitutional amendments explicitly barring the recognition of same-sex marriages, and every election cycle sees new measures on state ballots trying to change these numbers both ways.

What a mess!

I guess same-sex couples married in Massachusetts are trapped in that state! To add to the confusion, some companies offer benefits to same-sex couples but most don’t offer anything at all. This does not reflect equal protection under the law! Why can’t we have a federal legal standard that allows all people to enter into marriage and enjoy these constitutional protections?

The answer, of course, is embodied in conservative Christians who think marriage is only for heterosexual people. So how do we fix this and attempt to limit opposition? This brings me back to the title of this post. I propose we get government out of the marriage business! How would this work you ask? First we pass a new federal law that only recognizes civil unions which would have the same protections as current legally defined marriages. This would assure legal standing for all couples in all states, effectively forcing all companies to deal with their employees equally.

Now that we have equal protection under the law for everyone, what about marriage? We simply give marriage back to the church. If a couple wants to be viewed as married, they would have to get blessings from their church. If a church does not think marriage applies to same-sex couples, then that couple would not receive a marriage license in that situation. If same-sex couples wish to be viewed as married, they would simply need to join a church that recognizes their situation.

I believe this would make it hard for conservative Christians to oppose gay marriage. Could they say other religions can’t sanction marriage for everyone? We would be using freedom of religion, separation of church and state, and equal protection under the law to solve this issue. So let’s just get government out of marriage once for all and end the debate on this.

I have never heard anyone take this angle on this issue and believe it is original thinking on my part, therefore, I felt I needed to write a post to take credit if this idea ever takes off. Does this idea have merit or is it unworkable? Looking forward to comments of criticism, approval, and rants regarding this post.

What happened last Sunday and MySpace

The Shadow Democracy Radio Show did take place last Sunday but due to the same technical difficulties we had the week before it was not broadcast live or will be available for download. This was too bad since the discussion on the news and topic between me, Matthew and our new producer Jack was very compelling stuff in my opinion. Sometimes it does suck being a no budget production. We are confident that with the help of WNYMedia.net that we will be up and running next Sunday, but stay tuned for any changes on this blog.

In other news we have a official ShadowDemocracy.org MySpace profile now! We hope to connect with fans, friends, and spread the buzz about the Shadow Democracy Network across the internet. It’s ironic that we are using the social network owned by right wing media mogul Robert Murdoch to promote our own ‘left-leaning purposes’ but we don’t mind. So if you are on MySpace please add us as a friend since we could use some more. That’s all for now…