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Kagans Kagans Kagans
Morning after Bush' tv speech announcing his latest “plan” for victory in Iraq. (Escalation, as expected, euphemistically called a “surge.”)
One of Brian Lehrer’s guests today on his show today on public radio station WNYC was the imperialist “military historian” Frederick Kagan, late of West Point, training ground for future army officers, now ensconced in a right-wing propaganda mill, the so-called American Enterprise Institute (“conservative think-tank” in the respectful locution used by Lehrer).
Kagan absurdly maintained that OF COURSE Bush wasn’t going to invade Iran or Syria. How does he know? Because Bush just threatened those nations on tv last night, and you don’t threaten before you invade! Why, then it’s not a surprise if you subsequently invade. Guess this clown wasn’t alive during 2002-2003, which the U.S. spent threatening Iraq with invasion PRIOR TO INVADING! Guess Lehrer wasn’t alive then either, since he didn’t mention it. And how good a “military historian” could Kagan be if he is unaware of the numerous examples of nations threatening other nations before their aggression? Like, say, Nazi Germany.
The point of public threats is to psych up your army and populace for war. That’s why threats precede aggression. Also there’s the need to create justifications and pretexts for war.
Then of course there are the inconvenient (and thus ignored by Lehrer and Co.) facts that the U.S. has conducted raids into Syria already, and recon forays into Iran to target that country's nuclear facilities. We don't yet know if the Special Force have also been committing sabotage and assassinations in Iran.
Lehrer is in love with imperialists. Two days ago he had on Kagan's more egregiously warmongering brother Robert. He had three on today, and one anti-war critic, Congressman Jose Serrano of the Bronx. Lehrer also had on what's more typically palmed off on the public as a “war critic,” someone who objects to the execution of the war, not to U.S. aggression. Today’s “war critic”of that ilk was a retired Colonel and National War College instructor, Sam Gardner.
The point is to try and brainwash the liberal WNYC audience. Seems like one or the other Kagan is on Lehrer’s show every couple of weeks lately for this purpose. Many of Lehrer's shows follow the pattern of trying to pull leftist-leaners in the audience to the right.
Of course, WNYC sees its mission as an anti-WBAI. It even runs ALL its fundraisers at exactly the same time WBAI runs its.
Ironically, this evening's PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer (presumably no relation to Brian) on tv had a much more realistic and honest discussion, with Zbigniew Brzezinski and Walter Russell Mead. Brzezinski has become an amazingly candid and realistic (for an imperialist) commentator on the Iraq war and the follyo f Bush's foreign policy. This was a guy who connived with China to invade Vietnam, who was part of the effort to keep the Shah of Iran in power, and then to rescue him and try to subvert the Iranian revolution.
Brzezinski said such things as “neocons are raring to go” into Iran. (Why can't Kagan and Lehrer see that obvious fact?) He described them as having “a kind of fanatical commitment which I think is detached from reality.” He also got the last word, which was to describe the war as a “colonial war” in a “post-colonial era. It cannot be won because it's out of sync with the times.” Amazing words coming from a member of the U.S. Establishment! It's a wonder he can still get on tv.
It seems that he and his erstwhile boss Jimmy Carter (B. was Carter's “National Security” Advisor) are the most (relatively) honest members of the Establishment today. Carter is currently being reviled by the Jewish mafia and its accomplices as practically an anti-Semite for writing a book that dared to criticize Israeli oppression of the Palestinians as well as criticizing the Palestinians. What a nerve the man has! Criticize Israel? The man must hate Jews! (The Jewish executive director of his organization and 14 board members subsequently resigned to protest Carter’s committing the unconscionable outrage of criticizing Israel.)
On the other hand, Walter Mead was a mealy-mouthed company man on the PBS show. He obediently adopted the Bush nomenclature of “surge” instead of escalation. While speaking of how the U.S. is “tightening the noose,” he claims not to know if Bush's threats against Iran and Syria in his speech are intended to coerce. “You're asking me to read minds there and I'm not good at reading minds” he told Jim Lehrer. What an ass. Apparently he's also no good at reading papers and websites or listening to broadcasts. Because it was already reported early that morning, before the PBS evening show or Brian Lehrer's show, that the U.S. Attacked the Iranian consulate in Erbil, in the Kurdish region of Iraq, kidnapping the diplomatic personnel there and stealing the property, documents, computers, etc., and ripping the Iranian flag off the flagpole for good measure. Legally that's an invasion of Iranian territory, and thus an act of war. Of course, it's also a violation of international law, but the U.S. violates international law daily. NPR (the network of which WNYC is an affiliate and which broadcasts its news) helpfully pointed out that Erbil is far, far away from the insurgencies that Bush accused Iran of supporting, supplying, and stoking.
If Brian Lehrer had bothered to listen to that morning's NPR feed, he could have asked Frederick Kagan about his ridiculous assertion that it's nonsense to think Bush would start a war with Iran. Of course, Lehrer was probably well aware of it. He seems quite well-informed generally. Guess it just wasn't that important. What's another war, more or less? Or another deception, or another arrogantly dishonest “expert” (Kagan) waging his little propaganda war against the public? Aided and abetted by “liberal” Brian Lehrer.
