The Nobel Peace Prize is a notoriously difficult award to predict, but
yesterday's decision was clearly a political choice, with three of the past six
peace awards going to Bush adversaries.
"......the celebrity commander..........",".............the general, with the Capitol Hill contacts and web
of e-mail relationships throughout Washington’s journalism establishment....................."
But something very dangerous is happening. Criticism from the far right has
begun tipping over into delegitimation and creating the same kind of climate
here that existed in Israel on the eve of the Rabin assassination.
The “War on Terror” was “made up”, Vidal says. “The whole thing was PR, just
like ‘weapons of mass destruction’.
We’ll have a military dictatorship fairly soon, on the basis that nobody else
can hold everything together.
I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the
Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic;
that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the
orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers
appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military
Justice. So help me God.”
I was in Reagan National Airport this morning and I noticed that the
tourist-souvenir shop has changed its wares. It is now fronting anti-Obama
merchandise. 'Nope' (with the Obama rainbow O) and 'Don't Blame Me, I Voted for
McCain and Sarah Palin' are now upfront. A friend says this has been the case
since early September at least. It's possible that the recent Tea Party crowds
spilling into Washington explain it. Still, given how over-the-top Obama schwag
has been at National for nearly a year, I think it's an interesting change.
Alas, I couldn't find any More Cowbell merch, but give it time."
"I’ve talked to the president, since I’ve been here, once on a VTC [video
teleconferece]," Gen. Stanley McChrystal told CBS reporter David Martin in a
television interview that aired Sunday.
"You’ve talked to him once in 70
days?" Mr. Martin followed up.
"That is correct," the general replied.
The Pentagon has brought forward to December 2009 the target-date for producing
the first 15-ton super bunker-buster bomb (GBU-57A/B) Massive Ordinance
Penetrator, which can reach a depth of 60.09 meters underground before
exploding. DEBKAfile's military sources report that top defense agencies and air
force units were also working against the clock to adapt the bay of a B2a
Stealth bomber for carrying and delivering the bomb.
The Pentagon has
ordered the number of bombs rolling off the production line increased from four
to ten - a rush job triggered in May by the discovery that Iran was hiding a
second uranium enrichment plant under a mountain near Qom - a discovery which
prompted this week's international outcry.
Congress has since quietly
inserted the necessary funding in the 2009 budget.
All this urgency
indicates that the Obama administration has been preparing military muscle to
back up the international condemnation of Iran's concealed nuclear bomb program,
its sanctions threat and his willingness to join the negotiations with Iran
opening on Oct. 1 in Geneva. Tehran may have to take into account a possible
one-time surgical strike against its underground enrichment facility as a
warning shot should its defiance continue. In particular, the world powers this
week demanded that Iran open up all its nuclear facilities and programs to full
and immediate international inspection. Failure to do so could bring forth
further US military action
But the US defense secretary believes Israel, like the rest of the world, mustSo Israel must come to learn to live with a nuclear-armed Iran.Their is just one problem with that,Secretary Gates.If Israel accepts a nuclear-armed Iran,Israel will have no life to accept anything.They would be destroyed.
accept life under the shadow of a nuclear-armed Iran and make the best of it.
"It is shameful to be part of an alliance whose leader does not care about
spilling the blood of human beings by bombing villages intentionally," he said,
referring to civilian deaths in missile attacks against Taliban fighters in
Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Iran acknowledged the existence of the facility for the first time on Monday, in
a letter to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency. The letter said
"a new pilot fuel enrichment plant is under construction in the country," said
Marc Vidricaire, a spokesman for the watchdog agency. "The letter stated that
the enrichment level would be up to 5 percent."
White House officials said Western intelligence agencies have been tracking the
facility for years. Obama said officials from the United States, France and
Britain briefed the IAEA in Vienna on Thursday on what they knew about the
facility. The three heads of state decided to publicly disclose the existence of
the facility after learning that Iran had become aware the site was no longer a
secret.
:"Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow," Obama said, detailing
how the facility at Qom had been under construction for years without being
disclosed, as required, to the International Atomic Energy Association.
"International law is not an empty promise."
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown accused Iran of "serial deception" that he
said "will shock and anger the whole international community, and it will harden
our resolve."
"We will not let this matter rest," Brown said. " . . . Iran
must abandon any military ambitions for its nuclear programs."
:"How, before the eyes of the world, could we justify meeting without tackling
them?" Sarkozy said. "We live in the real world, not a virtual world. And the
real world expects us to take decisions."
On Friday, he said Iran "is taking
the international community on a dangerous path . . . Everything, everything,
must be put on the table now. We cannot let the Iranian leaders gain time while
the motors are running."
Both Sarkozy and Brown said that if Iran does not come into compliance byObama may be planning to get tougher than both Sarkozy and Brown.Obama just may not send a Christmas card to the Ayatollah.
December, it risks the imposition of stringent international sanctions. Obama,
who spoke in more measured terms, did not mention sanctions specifically.
“Yesterday the president of Iran stood at this very podium and spewed
his anti-Semitic rants,” the premier said. “Just a few days earlier he claimed
that the Holocaust was a lie.”
“Do those who listened to Ahmadinejad’s
speech have no shame, no decency?”
“Perhaps some of you think [Ahmadinejad] and his odious regime only
threaten
the Jews,” Netanyahu continued. “Well, if you think that you are
wrong,
dead wrong.”
Netanyahu warned against the dangers posed by
Iran,
imploring
the West to confront the Islamic Republic’s “religious
fanaticism.”
“The
struggle against Iran pits civilization against
barbarism,” Netanyahu told the
UN. “This Iranian regime is fueled by
extreme
fundamentalism.”
“What starts
as attacks on Jews always
ends
up
engulfing others,” Netanyahu said. “This
regime embodies the
extremes
of
Islamic fundamentalism.”
He is absolutely correct.It never stops with the Jews.It continues on to the Christians,onto women,onto atheist,so on and so on until all submit to Islamic law.
He also said this:
The premier challenged the world body to prevent Iran from acquiring weapons
of mass destruction. Israel and the Western powers believe Iran’s nuclear
program is of a military nature, a charge the Iranians deny.
Netanyahu
said
the progress made in the postwar 20th century could be undone if
Iran
is
permitted to build atomic weapons.
“History could be
reversed if
primitive
fanaticism acquires deadly weapons,” the premier
told the UN. “The
jury is still
out on the United Nations, and the signs
aren`t
encouraging.”
If left to the U.N. and Barack Obama,Iran will get the bomb.If left to the U.N. and Barack Obama,Iran will destroy Israel.Israel must defend itself,because Barack Obama and the U.N. most certainly wont.
Benjamin Netanyahu is the Winston Churchill of our generation.As Churchill warned the world of Adolf Hitler,Netanyahu warns us of the evils of the Islamic regime in Iran.Like Churchill he also understands that appeasement never leads to peace but it always emboldens your enemy and leads to war.
