Thank you Scarecrow for this short yet effective overview of what lies at the core of current American/Israeli credibility,integrity and legitimacy shortfalls in the ME.

Hezbollah in Lebanon is viewed by many in Lebanon not to be a force of terror but rather as the most viable group doing the day to day stuff of helping many Lebanese who were directly affected by the 2006 summer attack from Israel.

Hamas is the direct outgrowth from the ongoing and plain to see hopelessly corrupted Fatah organization in Arab Palestinian affairs. After having won through a vetted democratic election the support of enough Arab Palestinians to attain political decision make power Hamas was branded by the Israelis and the Americans as a pariah and fully attacked and discredited by all means and tactics.

So the Arab Palestinians now have been once more threatened and then debased via Israeli state terrorism and American state terrorism.

Dick Cheney has been known to base his being in power with the claim that winning is fifty percent plus one percent more(51%)which would seem to empower him to do what he does plainly enough.

The word hypocrisy is exhausted by the Americans and the Israelis in the ME anymore.

As for those who would parse which Americans or Israelis are in fact embracing,empowering or doing the dirty deeds of America or Israel in the ME?

Just this.

For the victims of state terror whether it comes from the sky,tanks,artillery or close in troop deployment death is a one time event. For the families and loved ones of those killed the consideration of parsing whether it was certain Americans or Israelis is not how those deaths and inflicted suffering are very likely rationalized or remembered.

Death was brought on or near by Americans or Israelis. Those who fly and come under an American or Israeli flag.

And that is how all Americans and Israelis need to see the killing which takes place under the flags of America or Israel.

In Arab Palestine.Lebanon.Iraq.

The Israelis and Americans are caught up in a crime spree in the ME that plainly is killing,maiming and causing millions of innocents to suffer.

This is the record of fact.

The consequence of being seen as the agents of death and suffering then is rightfully placed on America and Israel for that crime spree.

Truth of the matter is the Americans and the Israelis have not a valid claim to being the good guys in the ME these days.

The act of going around the ME and branding who is involved in terrorism or a terrorist group is some kind of twisted,upside down craziness.

Akin to Al Capone stating he stood for law and order and wanted to point out who he thought were the crooks and where to find them.

The Americans and Israelis are doing just this in the ME. Over and over. It is crazy.

The Israelis are as much into terror as any in the ME.

Israeli hypocrisy astounds.

As for the Americans? The hypocrisy they practice daily in the ME is only exceeded by the levels of self deceit and denial they blind themselves with and hide behind shamelessly.

The Arabs are surely not either blameless,without fault or innocent in ME affairs and one could easily expand on that thought.

The greater point made here is however is that Israel and America are doing themselves no favors or long good trying to get where they want by doing or being what they are today in the ME.

What they do is not what good guys do.

Doing what the Americans and Israelis do and then turning around and claiming to be the good guys is without credibility.

It surely qualifies as rank hypocrisy.

How can such conduct lead to any winning of anything anywhere in the ME?

It can not. Will not. It opens and leads to a debacle. And now has.

Lebanon,Arab Palestine and Iraq given as examples.

It appears Iran may become an example.

What is happening in the ME will likely become much worse still should Iran be attacked, invaded and thrown into chaos/mayhem.

Someone must speak out against it. Speak against it more. Speak against it more still.

Again…Scarecrow. Thank You.

Declaring a significant portion of the armed forces of a state as a “terrorist organization” is tantamount to a declaration that that state is a terrorist organization. It is a half-step away from a declaration of war.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard is paid for by the state, it is controlled by the state, all its assets are the state’s and all its missions are the state’s. Any change in its leadership, procedures, funding or mission is controlled by the state.

Imagine with even one degree of separation – ie, those directly or indirectly supporting a “terrorist organization” or directly or indirectly undermining our “war effort” in Iraq – what would be dragged into Mr. Bush’s new net: the spies, the banks, the transport companies, the caterers, weapons manufacturers, and, of course, the state itself.

Among Iran’s assets outside the country are enormous financial investments and oil stocks. This declaration, if enforceable outside the US, could lead to the US laying claim to all of them.

No state would allow that, of course, or so Mr. Cheney hopes. The needlessly and overtly incendiary move is designed to provoke a violent reaction from the Iranians. So violent or ill-thought out that it would allow Dick Cheney to go to war with other people’s children and money.

Cheney hopes that result is a predictable as his own were Russia, the EU and China to condemn as “terrorist organizations” his Army or Special Forces, or his hundred eighty thousand odd mercenaries and contractors in Iraq. Imagine the property that could be seized, the exposure of secrets, and the public war crimes trials.

Cheney knows he would do anything to avoid that. He hopes his Iranian counterparts are as blind to all recourse but war as he is. This is a provocative, unmistakable prelude to war. Who says August is recess time in Washington?

The ChimpCo cabal acts like its the only player in the region or so they would like the public to believe. And apparently Iran feels itself pretty cooperative, and points fingers at Saudi Arabia. Iran is worried that Russia has become a US partner. Strange in light of SCO.Russia and China, Iran and Central Asia. If anything, I would think China & Russia would want to stick to a program of sending strong signals to the US. But alliances are always pretty tricky. (Russia has a reputation among the Chinese as a regional backstabber.)

Don’t they realize they can’t just break into a jewelry store in broad daylight with people watching and steal the goods without everybody knowing they’re the thieves? They wear masks, but then pull them off every now and then to look into the security cameras. How exactly do they expect to provoke a war with Iran this obviously without it backfiring on them.

It’s the absurdity of it all, the surrealistic quality, which just smacks ya up side the head and makes you wanna scream.

They’re either the lousiest criminals in history or they’ve got some kinda ‘get out of jail’ card trick that we don’t know about.

The fact that this came about on the day Rove leaves gives credence to those who saw this as a showdown between him and Cheney, with Cheney and the neocon pro-Iran invasion thugs winning.

Is there anything that Congress can do at this point? What about rescinding the original go-to-war order. That would be a start.

The terms of that were really resolved long ago. We have no legal authority to be in Iraq.

Aside from the basis based on Bush lies there never really was any legal authority for going there.

Senate Hearing –
Byrd: What is our authority for being in Iraq?
Gates: I don’t know.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard is paid for by the state, it is controlled by the state, all its assets are the state’s and all its missions are the state’s. Any change in its leadership, procedures, funding or mission is controlled by the state.

Imagine with even one degree of separation – ie, those directly or indirectly supporting a “terrorist organization” or directly or indirectly undermining our “war effort” in Iraq – what would be dragged into Mr. Bush’s new net: the spies, the banks, the transport companies, the caterers, weapons manufacturers, and, of course, the state itself.

Among Iran’s assets outside the country are enormous financial investments and oil stocks. This declaration, if enforceable outside the US, could lead to the US laying claim to all of them.

No state would allow that, of course, or so Mr. Cheney hopes. The needlessly and overtly incendiary move is designed to provoke a violent reaction from the Iranians. So violent or ill-thought out that it would allow Dick Cheney to go to war with other people’s children and money.

Cheney hopes that result is a predictable as his own were Russia, the EU and China to condemn as “terrorist organizations” his Army or Special Forces, or his hundred eighty thousand odd mercenaries and contractors in Iraq. Imagine the property that could be seized, the exposure of secrets, and the public war crimes trials.

Cheney knows he would do anything to avoid that. He hopes his Iranian counterparts are as blind to all recourse but war as he is. This is a provocative, unmistakable prelude to war. Who says August is recess time in Washington?

http://www.attytood.com/2007/0…..eally.html

–Rick Taylor

So you would think…

You’re 98% right about everything, as usual, but why weaken your otherwise strong arguments by starting out with the insinuation that Hezbullah is not a terrorist organization? At best that makes you ignorant. At worst, it opens you up to charges of being knee-jerk anti-Israel. I don’t follow your writing enough to know which it is, but given that Hizbullah/Israel/Lebanon are at best tangentially related to your point, why lead with that?