US-Israeli Interactions

Thanks to Mick Gallagher.

US-Israeli Interactions
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www.uruknet.info [51986]
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U.S.-Israel Storm Clouds Ahead?

February 20, 2009

After eight years of the closest possible relations, the United States and Israel might be headed for a period of increasing strain, particularly given the likelihood that whatever Israeli government emerges from last week's election will be more hawkish than its predecessor.
While Iran, with which Barack Obama has pledged to engage in a "constructive dialogue," and the future of its nuclear program, will no doubt serve as the greatest source of tension between the two allies, the new president's commitment to achieving real progress on a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict might also provoke serious friction, particularly if a reunified Arab League launches a major new push for its 2002 peace plan.
Last week's election produced a clear majority for right-wing parties led by the Likud Party of former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly declared his opposition to a settlement freeze, territorial concessions, and the creation of a viable Palestinian state.
Even if the more-centrist Kadima leader, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, can patch together a government of national unity, the right-wing parties will be able to effectively block major concessions in any peace talks, in the absence of any external pressure.
"Given the philosophical differences between Kadima and Likud on peace issues, such a unity-government would be hard-pressed to make the historic decisions needed to reach a deal with the Palestinians," wrote former U.S. Mideast peace negotiator, Aaron David Miller, in the Jewish Forward this week.
But Obama and his Mideast special envoy, former Sen. George Mitchell, might indeed be willing to exert pressure on Israel, among other things, by tabling their own views about a final peace agreement and how precisely it might be achieved, especially if ongoing Arab efforts to reconcile Hamas and Fatah in a new coalition government succeed.
If all goes well on that front, the Arab League, fortified by a developing rapprochement between Syria and Saudi Arabia, could announce the latest version of its 2002 peace plan at next month's summit in Doha, according to Marc Lynch, a George Washington University specialist on Arab politics. Such a move "could galvanize the situation and put the onus on whatever Israeli government emerges to respond positively," he wrote on his widely read blog on the Foreign Policy Website this week.
"If you have a unified Palestinian government and a unified Arab move for peace," added Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator, "then it's much more likely that Obama will step up his own efforts, ideally, working with an Israeli government that's ready to go along with a serious peace process, but, if not, being willing to make his disagreement (with that government) known."
The result could be a serious test between the next Israeli government and its influential advocates here and an administration which clearly believes that real progress toward resolving the 60-year-old conflict is critical both to restoring Washington's credibility among the Arab states and curbing the further radicalization of the region's population, particularly in the wake of Israel's recent military offensive in Gaza.
A more likely source of tension between the U.S. and Israel, however, will be Iran's nuclear program.
"Iran is going to be the most likely issue on which Israel and the United States will have a serious difference of opinion, if not a confrontation, in the next year," warned former U.S. Ambassador Samuel Lewis after the election last week.
Although Netanyahu has been the most outspoken, virtually the entire Israeli political and military establishment has described Iran's alleged nuclear ambitions as an "existential" threat to the Jewish state; [they have] suggested that Israel should be prepared unilaterally to attack Tehran's key nuclear facilities as early as within the next year if it cannot persuade Washington to do so.
Already last year, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert asked bush for bunker-busting bombs, refueling capacity, and permission to fly over Iraq for an attack on Iran, according to a new book by New York Times correspondent David Sanger, entitled "Inheritance."
That request was strongly opposed by Pentagon chief Robert Gates, who has been retained by Obama, and ultimately rejected by bush. According to bush's former top Middle East aide, Elliott Abrams, bush, who almost never denied the Israelis anything, was worried that any attack on Iran risked destabilizing Iraq.
While the violence in Iraq has continued to decline, U.S. military commanders insist that stability there remains "fragile," so that bush's concerns about the implications for Iraq of a U.S. or Israeli attack on Iran are likely to be shared by Obama.
Even more important, however, is the new administration's conviction that Afghanistan and Pakistan, which, like Iraq, also border Iran, constitute the true "central front in the war on terror," an assessment backed up by Obama's announcement this week that he will deploy 17,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan over the next few months, bringing total U.S. and NATO troop strength there to 80,000.
Top U.S. civilian and military officials dealing with "AfPak," as the new administration has dubbed the two countries, have made clear that they hope to enlist Iran, with which Washington cooperated in ousting the Taliban in 2001, in helping to stabilize Afghanistan.
"It is absolutely clear that Iran plays an important role in Afghanistan," Obama's special "Afpak" envoy, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, said in Kabul earlier this week in an interview during which he pointedly declined to repeat bush administration charges that Tehran was aiding the Taliban. "[Iran has] a legitimate role to play in this region, as do all of Afghanistan's neighbors," he insisted.
Most regional specialists, including Bruce Riedel, who co-chairs the White House's "AfPak" policy review, and John Brennan, Obama's top counter-terrorism adviser, have long argued that Iran's cooperation would make Washington's effort to stabilize the region and ultimately defeat al Qaeda markedly easier; conversely, its active opposition, as in Iraq, is likely to make the task considerably more difficult.
That assessment has, if anything, gained strength in just the past few weeks as Washington has scrambled to secure new supplylines into landlocked Afghanistan after a key bridge in Pakistan's Khyber Pass was destroyed by Taliban militants there; and Kyrgyzstan threatened to end Washington's access to its Manas air base.
While U.S. efforts to compensate have focused so far on the overland route through Russia and the Central Asian "Stans," a growing number of voices have noted that a much less costly and more efficient alternative route would run from Iran's southern ports into western Afghanistan.
Although Tehran would no doubt be very reluctant to permit the U.S. military to use its territory at this point, NATO's supreme commander, U.S. Gen. John Craddock, said earlier this month that he had no objection if other NATO members could negotiate an access agreement with Iran.
Of course, it is not yet clear whether U.S. success in "AfPak" and Iran's possible role in securing it, will help trump Washington's concerns about Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
But the clear priority [of] stabilizing Southwest Asia is being given by the new administration; and the abrupt change in the rhetoric emanating from Washington about Iran, not to mention abiding concerns regarding Iran's ability to destabilize Iraq, clearly run counter to Israel's efforts to depict Tehran's nuclear program as, in Netanyahu's words, "the greatest challenge facing the leaders of the 21st century."

And it will surely make it more difficult for him or anyone else in the next Israeli government to "harness the U.S. administration to stop the threat."

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Taken from www.uruknet.info
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http://ww.uruknet.info?p=m51986
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And the Truth Shall Set You Free

Thanks to Mick Gallagher.

"And the Truth Shall Set You Free": Iranian President to UN/Larry King
CNN
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Iran leader says 'American empire' near collapse

By SLOBODAN LEKIC – 2 days ago

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Iran's president accused "a few bullying powers" of trying to thwart his country's peaceful nuclear program and declared in a speech Tuesday before the U.N. General Assembly that "the American empire" is nearing collapse.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sharply attacked the United States and NATO, accusing them of acting as aggressors in Iraq and Afghanistan, and of starting those wars "in order to win votes in elections."

"American empire in the world is reaching the end of its road, and its next rulers must limit their interference to their own borders," Ahmadinejad said.

In a highly rhetorical speech, the Iranian leader again criticized archenemy Israel and showed no sign of reaching out to Western powers at the U.N., where the United States and its European allies are seeking a new round of sanctions if no agreement is reached on limiting Iran's nuclear capabilities.

Some worry that Israel or the U.S. might resort to military strikes if they believe all diplomatic options have been exhausted.

While the U.S. and its allies allege Iran wants to develop its uranium enrichment program to make nuclear weapons, Tehran insists it is designed to produce electricity for civilian use — a position Ahmadinejad reiterated Tuesday.

"A few bullying powers have sought to put hurdles in the way of the peaceful nuclear activities of the Iranian nation by exerting political and economic pressures against Iran and also through threatening and pressuring the IAEA," the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

Iran already is under three sets of sanctions by the U.N. Security Council for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment. Washington and its Western allies are pushing for quick passage of a fourth set of sanctions to underline the international community's resolve, but are likely to face opposition from Russia.

As in past years, the United States only had a low-level note-taker sitting in a rear seat reserved for the U.S. delegation, said Richard Grenell, spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.

On Tuesday, Ahmadinejad also lashed out at Israel, saying "the Zionist regime is on a definite slope to collapse, and there is no way for it to get out of the cesspool created by itself and its supporters."

The Iranian president is feared and reviled in Israel because of his repeated calls to wipe the Jewish state off the map, and his aggressive pursuit of nuclear technology has only fueled Israel's fears.

He said that six years after Saddam Hussein's regime was ousted in Iraq, "the occupiers are still there."

"Millions have been killed or displaced, and the occupiers, without a sense of shame, are still seeking to solidify their position in the ... region and to dominate oil resources," Ahmadinejad said.

In Afghanistan, terrorism is spreading quickly and the presence of NATO forces has contributed to a huge increase in the production of narcotics, Ahmadinejad said.

Ahmadinejad's speech came just hours after President Bush made his eighth and final speech to the U.N. General Assembly, urging the international community to stand firm against the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea.

"A few nations, regimes like Syria and Iran, continue to sponsor terror," Bush said. "Yet their numbers are growing fewer, and they're growing more isolated from the world. As the 21st century unfolds, some may be tempted to assume that the threat has receded. This would be comforting. It would be wrong. The terrorists believe time is on their side, so they've made waiting out civilized nations part of their strategy. We must not allow them to succeed."

At one point during Bush's 22-minute speech, Ahmadinejad turned to Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and gave a thumb's down.

During interviews ahead of his speech Tuesday, Ahmadinejad blamed U.S. military interventions around the world in part for the collapse of global financial markets. He said the campaign against his country's nuclear program was solely due to the Bush administration "and a couple of their European friends."

"The U.S. government has made a series of mistakes in the past few decades," Ahmadinejad said an interview with the Los Angeles Times. "The imposition on the U.S. economy of the years of heavy military engagement and involvement around the world ... the war in Iraq, for example. These are heavy costs imposed on the U.S. economy.

"The world economy can no longer tolerate the budgetary deficit and the financial pressures occurring from markets here in the United States, and by the U.S. government," he added.

In a separate interview with National Public Radio, Ahmadinejad claimed vast international support for his position and said the campaign consisted "of only three or four countries, led by the United States and with a couple of their European friends."

Associated Press Writer Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report.

Stories from Alternative News

Thanks to Mick Gallagher.

thepeoplesvoice.org Newsletter
092107

A Fed Panic and a Massive Bailout of American Banks Paid For by the Entire World - Rodrigue Tremblay

"Manias, panics, and crashes are the consequence of an economic environment that cultivates cupidity, chicanery, and rapaciousness rather than a devout belief in the Golden Rule." - Peter L. Bernstein, Foreword to Manias, Panics, and Crashes (4th ed.) by C. P. Kindleberger

"In a crisis, discount and discount heavily." - Walter Bagehot (1826-1877), British economist

AMERICA, THE ONCE FREE - Peter Fisk

I have grown sick, embarrassed and, ultimately disillusioned with what
has happened to my country. The United States of America- at one time
those five magical words mesmerized both citizens and foreigners alike.

ORB Survey And 1.2 Million Iraq Deaths Ignored By Australian And Anglo-American Media - Dr Gideon Polya, Countercurrents

In February 2007, as we approached the Fourth Anniversary of the US-UK-Australian invasion of Iraq, I published an article in Countercurrents entitled "US Iraqi Holocaust and 1 million Excess Deaths". I detailed and documented the following horrendous circumstances in Occupied Iraq:

"as of February 2007:
(a) the accrual cost has been $2.3 trillion;
(b) there are 3.7 million Iraqi refugees;
(c) the post-invasion excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that did not have to happen) total 1.0 million (ONE MILLION);
(d) post-invasion under-5 infant deaths total .6 million;
(e) there were 1.7 million excess Iraqi deaths associated with the Western-imposed 1990-2003 Sanctions War;
(f) there were 1.2 million under-5 year old infant deaths in the 1990-2003 Sanctions War; and
(g) Coalition deaths total about 3,360."

It is now September 2007. And after a further SEVEN months of US-UK-Australian war and occupation, the horrendous human and economic cost has inevitably increased.

George W. Bush's Thug Nation - Robert Parry, Consortium News

It's said that over time, Presidents-- especially two-termers-- imbue the nation with their personalities and priorities, for good or ill. If that's true, it could help explain the small-minded, mean-spiritedness that seems to be pervading the behavior of the United States these days, both at home and abroad. On a global level, the world reads about trigger-happy Blackwater Security contractors mowing down civilians in Baghdad, the U.S. military killing unarmed people under loose rules of engagement in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and the CIA rendering suspected Islamists to secret prisons or to third-country dungeons where torture is practiced. Inside the United States, too, a police-state mentality is taking hold.

ACTION ALERT: Stop the Unconstitutional 'Protect America' Act - Michael Boldin

The single largest anti-Constitutional contribution to the Bush Regime by the Protect America Act (PAA) is its effective cancellation of legislative and judicial oversight on warrantless wiretapping. It authorizes open-ended surveillance of Americans' overseas phone calls and emails without a warrant. When this bill was signed into law on 08-05-07, legislative and judicial power in the executive branch instantly grew by several orders of magnitude. The Constitution's separation-of-powers principle had its arms ripped off.

09/20/07

Condoleezza Rice: saleswoman of lies - Palestinian Information Centre, From Khalid Amayreh in occupied East Jerusalem

Condoleezza Rice, the unglamorous American Secretary of State, arrived in Occupied Palestine on Wednesday to promote the putative American-proposed peace conference, slated to take place in November. Rice will meet with Zionist political and military leaders in an effort to convince them to show some flexibility vis--vis the so-called core issues that define the Palestinian question. These include, inter alia, ending the Israeli occupation that began in 1967 as well as finding a solution to the plight of nearly five million Palestinian refugees brutally uprooted from their homes by Zionist terror when Israel was created six decades ago.

Bush Speech on Iraq and Democrats on Impeachment - Stephen Crockett

Since George W. Bush is completely ignoring the views of both the vast majority of American citizens and the majority of the members of Congress concerning the ending of the Iraq War, impeachment hearings should be started. Bush will not conform to democratic norms. He will not respect public opinion or democracy. There are plenty of reasons to hold immediate joint impeachment hearings for both bush and cheney.

THE END OF AMERICA - THE POLICE STATE IS RIGHT HERE - RIGHT NOW - Carolyn Baker

As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such a twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air--however slight-- lest we become unwilling victims of the darkness. - Justice William O. Douglas

Wolf's just-published book, The End Of America: Letter Of Warning To A Young Patriot,... offers an even fuller picture-- a succinct and engaging explanation of how our civil liberties have been hijacked in the past decade. It is the most poignant, powerful, genuinely patriotic piece of literature I have encountered since Thomas Paine's Common Sense. No wonder then, that the book's cover greatly resembles that 46-page tract by Paine written in 1775-- as well it should.

Bush Nominates 9-11 Zionist Judge as Attorney General - Christopher Bollyn, Truth Seeker / Rumor Mill News

It is widely reported that george w. bush will nominate former Manhattan federal Judge Michael [Bernard] Mukasey to replace Alberto Gonzales as attorney general. With the fraudulent "War on Terror" in full swing and with 9-11 cases in legal limbo, this is a critical appointment at a crucial time. As I had expected, bush has appointed a radical Zionist with close ties to the State of Israel. Mukasey, if confirmed as U.S. Attorney General, will protect the Zionist state and its agents who are suspected of involvement in the false-flag terror attacks of 9-11.

The Crushing of Fallujah - James Petras, Global Research

The mass propaganda media has taught the US public to believe that the extermination of thousands of Iraqi citizens is in their best interests: they can sleep sound, as long as 'our boys' kill them 'over there'. Almost the entire population of Iraq is opposed to the US military and its puppet regime--yet the media refer to the patriots defending their country from the imperial invaders as "insurgents," minimizing the significance of a nation-wide patriotic liberation movement.

I am reading William Shirer's Berlin Diary, a journalist's account of Nazi political propaganda during the 1930's, as I watch the US 'news' reports of the violent assault on Fallujah. The US mass media 'reports', the style, content, and especially the language, echo their Nazi predecessor of 70 years ago to an uncanny degree. Coincidence? Of course! In both instances, we have imperialist armies conquering
countries, leveling cities, and slaughtering civilians-- and the mass media, private in form, state appendages in practice, disseminate the most outrageous lies, in defense and praise of the conquering 'storm troopers. Call them SS or Marines. Both in Nazi Germany and the contemporary US, we are told by the mass media that the invading armies are "freeing the country" of "foreign fighters", "armed terrorists", who are preventing "the people" from going about their everyday lives. Yet we know that of the 1,000 prisoners there are only 4 foreigners (3 Iranians and 1 Arab); Iraqi hospitals report less than 10% of foreign fighters. In other words, over 90% of the fighters are Iraqis--most of whom were born, educated, and raised families in the cities in which they are fighting.

Bush, Iran, and Israel's hidden hand - Kathleen and Bill Christison, Redress Nuclear hypocrisy in the Middle East

Former CIA analysts Kathleen and Bill Christison argue that a US and/or Israeli attack on Iran to bring about regime change and strengthen US and Israeli dominion over the Middle East is likely to take place before the Bush administration leaves office unless a concerted effort is made to impeach bush and cheney. The internet is loaded these days with reports of the inevitability of a US, or a US-Israeli, attack on Iran. Some writers allege that the attack is imminent. Others, including the writers of this article, argue only that the attack will happen sometime before January 2009, when the bush administration leaves office. Many of these stories have by now been picked up by the mainstream media. In fact, it is probably safe to say that today, a majority of the traditionally cautious and so-called respectable foreign policy experts in the US think it is at least possible that bush will attack Iran before he leaves office.

Palestinian Propaganda Prize for Israel- Nicola Nasser

The inter-Palestinian war of words and the mutual violations of the freedom of press and expression by the Hamas - led government of Ismael Haniyyeh in the Gaza Strip and the Fatah-led government of Salam Fayyad in the West Bank have presented Israel with its biggest propaganda prize that is overshadowing the violations of human rights committed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).

Nablus Fierce Battle Killed & Injured Israeli State Terrorist Unit - Hiyam Noir, PalestineFreeVoice

Gaza City September 18 2007: Invading Israeli State Terrorist units launched wide scale attacks into the Al-'Ayn refugee camp in Nablus in two stages on Tuesday morning. In the first incursion, more than fifty Israeli armed vehicles stormed the camp just before dawn, and imposed a curfew. Members of the Israeli State Terrorists units seized four Palestinians and blasted through the walls in the alleys between the buildings, trespassed through Palestinian territorial land - and stationed themselves inside Palestinian homes.

George W. Bush: The Quiet Dictator - Irregular Times

As of this week, the bush administration's descent into totalitarian depravity has reached a new low so despicable that even a few Republicans are beginning to criticize it. It was revealed this week that the bush administration is planning to keep people as prisoners for their entire lives, even though there is no evidence that those people have committed any crime against the United States. The lack of evidence against these people is so striking that the American government does not even have enough grounds to bring them before a form of military tribunal that has been set up by George W. Bush precisely for the purpose of evading the standards of justice set by the United States Constitution.

PSR Monitor

Physicians for Social Responsibility is a non-profit advocacy organization that is the medical and public health voice for policies to stop nuclear war and proliferation and to slow, stop and reverse global warming and toxic degradation of the environment.

Visit the PSR's Legislative Action Center where you'll find the tools you need to help you be an effective advocate for key national and state policies. Sign up to be an activist and receive the PSR Monitor.

Latest Newsletter:

Supreme Court Rules on Global Warming EPA Has the Authority to Act
On April 2, the Supreme Court delivered a big victory in the continued effort to curb global warming. In a 5-4 decision, the high court ruled that carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping emissions are “air pollutants” under the federal Clean Air Act.

New Global Warming Report Defines Public Health Threat
On April 6, 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the second installment of its Fourth Assessment Report on climate change. The release of the Working Group II report, titled “Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability,” bolsters the need for immediate action to address global warming.

EPA’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee Calls for Stronger Ozone Standards
In the latest development on EPA’s efforts to revise national air quality standards for ozone air pollution, EPA’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC) has urged EPA Administrator Johnson to lower the permissible level of ground-level ozone pollution (smog) in order to better protect the respiratory health of children.

Sam Nunn, Bill Perry Blast New H Bomb in Congressional Testimony
Congressional consideration continues over the new hydrogen bomb, known as the “Reliable Replacement Warhead,” proposed by the Department of Energy in March. Former Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn and former Secretary of Defense William Perry testified in opposition to the new hydrogen bomb before the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development of the House Appropriations Committee on March 29, 2007. “If Congress gives a green light to this program in our current world
environment,” argued Nunn, “I believe that this will be: misunderstood by our allies; exploited by our adversaries; complicate our work to prevent the spread and use of nuclear weapons…and make resolution of the Iran and North Korean challenges all the more difficult.” Nunn continued, saying: “we will pay a very high price in terms of our overall national security if Congress gives the approval to go forward with this program. Mr. Chairman, I believe we need a strategic reassessment of the role and purposes of nuclear weapons in the 21st century and an urgent change in direction with both vision and steps. This change in direction should precede a Congressional decision on the RRW. I would not fund additional work on the RRW at this time." Mr. Perry concurred, testifying that “we could defer action for many years on an RRW program, and I have no doubt that this would put us in a stronger position to lead the international community in the continuing battle against nuclear proliferation, which threatens us all."

Dr. Robert Dodge Highlights Hefty Bill for Nuclear Weapons on Tax Day
Robert Dodge, M.D., who serves on the board of Physicians for Social Responsibility, Los Angeles and is president of the Ventura County chapter of PSR, wrote an op-ed for the Ventura County Star on tax day asking “Do we spend our taxes to help Earth or destroy it?” Dr. Dodge highlights the tremendous expense of nuclear weapons: “Incredibly, this year, the nation will spend $54 billion on all nuclear weapons programs designed to prepare for, defend and fight a nuclear war.” From 9:30 to midnight, the Ventura County Chapter of Citizens for Peaceful Resolutions held its annual Tax Day Nuclear Presentation at the Oxnard Post Office, educating taxpayers about where their money goes. “This tax day, Ventura County will spend in excess of $165 million on these nuclear-weapons programs.”

Dr. Peter Wilk Argues Against War in Iran
Peter Wilk, M.D., President of PSR/Maine and Wendy Hazard of the Board of the United Nations Association of Maine published an op-ed in the Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram on April 4, 2007 argue “we must intensify this pressure on the Bush administration to avert a wider war in the Middle East and to find a diplomatic solution regarding Iran's nuclear facilities. Another war is not the answer.”

Achieving Global Security Conference
On Friday, April 13, over 200 people participated in a "first of its kind" conference initiated by Maine PSR. "Achieving Global Security" brought together environmental, disarmament and peace activists to illuminate the connections between their issues and to discuss collaborative activities on energy policies, nuclear issues, preemptive war, and global warming. Speakers included Mary-Wynne Ashford, former Co-President of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, and Catherine Thomasson, current President of PSR. Topics discussed included, "Achieving a Sustainable Energy Policy in Maine"; "Ending the Nuclear Threat", and "Fighting Global Warming." Conference co-sponsers included the University of Southern Maine, Maine Public Health Association, Sierra Club of Maine and Maine National Council of Churches.

National PSR is working with other PSR chapters in Iowa and Pennsylvania on similar conferences. As we move towards the 2008 elections it is critical that these all important issues are brought to light. For more information contact maine PSR Executive Director, Melissa Boyd at psr_maine@yahoo.com.

Tell Congress to Support the Toxics Right-to-Know Protection Act
Prevent war on Iran. The time to prevent the next war is NOW.

In the News
Global Warming May Put U.S. in Hot Water
The Passing of Disarmament Heroes Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and Paul Leventhal


Lobby Day Reminder
On April 26th, PSR activists from around the country will convene in Washington, D.C. to meet with leaders on Capitol Hill to urge them to halt the production of new nuclear weapons and to call for decisive action on global warming — two of the gravest threats to human health and security.

Cheney Impeachment

Cheney Being Targeted for Impeachment

"Around the world, as a second carrier group moves toward the Persian Gulf, and White House threats against Iran are repeated on a daily basis, it is recognized that the only certain path to stopping the planned attack on Iran is the impeachment of Dick Cheney, who today, just as in the case of the Iraq War, is running the "team" and the policy for "regime change" in Iran."

"Together with the vice-president, Mr. Libby launched the push to invade Iraq .... And, together with Cheney, Libby has "worked hard to block signs of engagement with Iran, resist direct talks with North Korea, and undermine U.S. legislation prohibiting torture and degrading treatment of detainees."

(Thanks to Mick Gallagher)

War with Iran?

(Thanks to Mick Gallagher.)

Dear Friends of the Heart,

On Tuesday, a second US aircraft carrier arrived in the Sea of Oman off the southern coast of Iran1 giving a whole new meaning to the term "escalation." The bush administration is hell-bent on sending 21,000 troops to Iraq against the wishes of most Americans, but now it seems as if it might not stop there.

While the war in Iraq grows worse by the day, the White House seems to be turning its sights toward neighboring Iran, which could escalate the current conflict into a regional one. This reckless move comes despite the fact that most experts believe diplomacy is the way to go with Iran. President bush is out of control, and Congress needs to step in immediately to rein him in. Please sign this petition to Congress asking that it require the president to seek its authorization before taking
military action in Iran. Clicking here will add your name to the petition.

The President claimed that Iran is aiding the Iraqi insurgency, but analysts continue to cast doubt on the evidence. Even General Peter Pace of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has questioned the claims that the Iranian government is directly involved. After all, we are already in a war founded on disproved claims of WMDs.

But the reporting of this news is just the latest. Already we have two aircraft carriers in the region--unprecedented outside of war--and Patriot missiles have been deployed. Neither of these will help to protect our troops in Iraq, where most of the fighting is on the ground.

One thing is clear: Military action in Iran would further endanger our troops in Iraq, and threaten to destabilize the entire Middle East. It could even prop up the Iranian president, who is quickly losing popularity in his own country.

We have options: Experts say that sanctions and diplomacy can work. They just worked with North Korea, where we reached a deal last week for them to disarm. And we owe it to our troops to use all of our resources before sending them into harm's way. UN sanctions just went into effect yesterday; we need to give them a chance to work before provoking a regional conflict. It would be a mistake of historical proportion if the Administration thought that the 2002 resolution authorizing force against
Iraq was a blank check for the use of force against Iran-- without further Congressional authorization. Nor should the President think that the 2001 resolution authorizing force after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, in any way, authorizes force against Iran. If the administration believes that any use of force against Iran is necessary, the president must come to Congress to seek that authority.

Can you send a message to your representatives in demanding that Congress check our out-of-control president?

Clicking here will add your name to the petition:

Please also support General Wesley Clark and Iraq veterans, who have also mounted a petition against war with Iran, just announced today at:
http://www.StopIranWar.com

General Wesley Clark helped them launch their effort with these words:

War with Iran is not the answer now. We must work with our allies, talk with Iran, and use all diplomatic, political, and economic options at our disposal. Military force in Iran is not the solution.

Thank you for all you do.
Ilyse, Wes, Mari, Justin and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Thursday, February 22nd, 2007

Sources:

1. "USS Stennis Carrier Group Deploys Into Gulf Region," Bloomberg News,
February 20, 2007

2. "Pace Questions Whether Iran Arming Iraq," ABC News, February 13, 2007

3. Hillary Clinton for President. Transcript of floor speech. February
14, 2007

Support our member-driven organization: MoveOn.org Political Action is entirely funded by our 3.2 million members. We have no corporate contributors, no foundation grants, no money from unions. Our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. If you'd like to support our work, you can give now at:
http://political.moveon.org/donate/

PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

A Madman, not a Doofus

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Not Only the Worst President, but the Worst Possible President by Jane Smiley, HuffingtonPost.com

How do you build yourself a madman? Well, first you flatter him, and then you try never to make him angry, and then you feed him ideas that flatter him even more by making him seem to himself sentimentally visionary and powerful and righteous. You appeal to his already evident mean streak and his hot temper by reminding him all the time that he has enemies, and you cultivate his religious side so that the sense of righteous victimization inherent in extreme religion comes out. If he were not already an ignorant, dependant, fragile, and rigid person, he would not be susceptible to this sort of conditioning, but by temperament and practice, he has nothing of his own to counter your efforts. Then you hire a few shyster-sycophants like John Yoo to tell him (ignorant as he is, with no actual understanding of the Constitution), that as president he can do whatever he wants.

So, here he is, Little George, caught between the devil (Cheney) and the deep blue sea (fifty-some years of being infantilized by B/S/B). Cheney and Rumsfeld, aided by Rice and Miers and Hughes, convince him that his masculinity will only be enhanced by doing all the masculine things he missed out on over the years, especially making war. And Gerson gives his war a virtuous, godly gloss. And Gerson's words come out of his mouth so often that he believes them and thinks they are his. In the meantime, Karl Rove continues to think that he is the maestro, playing Little George (and his base and the rest of the nation) like his own personal piano. Playing the president, for Rove, means enhancing LIttle George's actual dependency while encouraging him to think that he's the boss (allowing him to call you "Turdblossom", for example, and isn't it telling that "turd" seems to be Bush's favorite imprecation, rather than, say, "fuck"?).

Bush is the worst possible president because he is simultaneously unusually ignorant for a president and unusually shallow, as well as desperate for a success he can call his own. I can see how in a certain sort of era--say an era of prosperity and world peace (can you think of one? I can't) an unusually ignorant and shallow man could bump along in the presidency for a few years without creating havoc and destruction, but these years didn't happen to be peaceful and prosperous, they happened to be delicate and dangerous. Clinton knew that, and he approached his compromising and self-contradictory foreign policy tasks with care. But Bush and his fellow boors were so blind that they adopted as their motto "anything but Clinton", sheer contrarianism and resentment. It wasn't enough to them for the US to be powerful, as it was in the Clinton years, or to be generally respected and appreciated--they wanted something more sensational--power they could feel, power that was erotic and fetishistic, power that was uncomfortable for others, power that would make them feel big by making others feel small, power that would show Clinton up. That's the tit Little George has been sucking for the last six years--the deluded propaganda of the neocons, addressed first to him and through him to the rest of us. What we saw the other night, when he proposed more war against more "foes" was the madman the last six years have created. This time, in his war against Iran, he doesn't even feel the need for minimal PR, as he did before attacking Iraq. All he is bothering with are signals--ships moving here, admirals moving there, consulates being raided in this other place. He no longer cares about the opinions of the voters, the Congress, the generals, the press, and he especially disdains the opinions of B/S/and B. Thanks to Gerson, he identifies his own little ideas with God (a blasphemy, of course, but hey, there's lots of precedent on this), so there's no telling what he will do. We can tell by the evidence of the last two months that whatever it is, it will be exactly the thing that the majority of the voters do not want him to do, exactly the thing that James Baker himself doesn't want him to do. The propaganda that Bush's sponsors and handlers have poured forth has ceased to persuade the voters but succeeded beyond all measure in convincing the man himself. He will tell himself that God is talking to him, or that he is possessed of an extra measure of courage, or he that he is simply compelled to do whatever it is. The soldiers will pay the price in blood. We will pay the price in money. The Iraqis will pay the price in horror. The Iranians will pay the price, possibly, in the almost unimaginable terror of nuclear attack. Probably, the Israelis will pay the price, too.

Little George isn't the same guy he was in 2000, the guy described by Gail Sheehy in her Vanity Fair profile--hyper-competitive and dyslexic, prone to cheat at games, always swinging between screwing up and making up, hating criticism and disagreement, careless of others but often charming. He is no longer the guy who the Republicans thought they could control (unlike, say, McCain). The small pathologies of Bush the candidate have, thanks to the purposes of the neocons and the religious right, been enhanced and upgraded. We have a bona fide madman now, who thinks of himself in a grandiose way as single-handedly turning the tide of history. Some of his Frankensteins have bailed, some haven't dared to, and others still seem to believe. His actions and his orders, especially about Iran, seem to be telling us that he will stop at nothing to prove his dominance. The elder Bush(es), Scrowcroft, Baker, and their friends, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gerson, and the neocons have made the monster and in the process endangered the country, the Constitution, and the world, not to mention the sanity of wretches like Jose Padilla (for an analysis of the real reason Gitmo continues to exist, see Dahlia Lithwick's article in Slate, here. Maybe the bums planned this mess for their own profit, or maybe they planned to profit without mess; maybe some of them regret what they have wrought. However, they all share the blame for whatever he does next.

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(Thanks to Teresa Ramsey.)