NYT editorial: Iran's Best Friend (George W Bush)

[Pirate Smile]

Iran's Best Friend

Published: March 5, 2006

At the rate that President Bush is going, Iran will be a global superpower before too long. For all of the axis-of-evil rhetoric that has come out of the White House, the reality is that the Bush administration has done more to empower Iran than its most ambitious ayatollah could have dared to imagine. Tehran will be able to look back at the Bush years as a golden era full of boosts from America, its unlikely ally.

-snip-
Washington has now become dangerously dependent on the good will and constructive behavior of Shiite fundamentalist parties that Iran sheltered, aided and armed during the years that Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq. In recent weeks, neither good will nor constructive behavior has been particularly evident, and if Iran chooses to stir up further trouble to deflect diplomatic pressures on its nuclear program, it could easily do so.

-snip-
Fast-forward to Thursday's nuclear deal with India, in which President Bush agreed to share civilian nuclear technology with India despite its nuclear weapons programs and its refusal to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

-snip-
The India deal is exactly the wrong message to send right now, just days before Washington and its European allies will be asking the International Atomic Energy Agency to refer Iran's case to the United Nations Security Council for further action. Iran's hopes of preventing this depend on convincing the rest of the world that the West is guilty of a double standard on nuclear issues. Mr. Bush might as well have tied a pretty red bow around his India nuclear deal and mailed it as a gift to Tehran.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/05/opinion/05sun1.html?hp

[Drum]

1. There's your boy, Republicans...

Read it and weep: you've been played.

[IrishBloodEngHeart]

7. that's your boy, new york times

they've been carrying Ws water in foreign policy the last 4 years. Now that Iraq is looking bad, they have suddenly found religion.

The NY times chearleaded the war, supported Judith Miller, and gave credibility to a lying, manipulitive administration, allowing it to lie us into war.

Their criticism now is worthless.

[The Icon Painter]

9. Don't Forget

The NYT also gave shelter to the stenographer Elizabeth Bumiller, she of the gushing adoration at the feet of Beloved Leader. One might have thought after the Judith Miller debacle, the Times would have had a general housecleaning of female sycophants with 'Miller' in their last names.

[IsItJustMe]

2. Insane policies made my insane people, and for what reason?

[Erika]

3. W is the world corporatist leader

He has no ties to the American worker, nor concern, nor care.

This must be finally being made clear to the Bushbots. W has sold our country out, lock, stock, and barrel.

[leveymg]

6. We have been selected to lose our shirt.

This happened to England and Germany twice in the last century, now it's our turn - unless we want to change the history that's been laid out for us. We'd better do that now.

Let's hope our friends in Langley at the Pentagon really are smarter than they've seemed to be for some years.

[leveymg]

4. Did Iran Win the Second US-Iraq War by Default?

http://www.selvesandothers.org/article9746.html

DemocraticUnderground.com

Did Iran Win the Second US-Iraq War by Default?
FBI Bust May Have Prevented War With Iran

Thursday 2nd June 2005, by Mark Levey


At this point, 1 June 2005, it is clear that both the US and Iraq have come out the losers. Who does that leave to reap the rewards?

Initially, it looked like Israel — at least Likud, and the other right-wing parties — was going to be the big winner, having manipulated its slow-witted Big Uncle to get rid of Saddam at no cost to itself. Until recent weeks, it even appeared likely that BushCo was going to be prodded into making another giant blunder, and would be pushed into bombing Iranian nuclear and missile sites or, at least, enabling the Israel Air Force to do so. Somehow, the prospects of that, and the risk of a general Middle East war, seem to be receding.

Prospects of war receding? Allow me to say that the rush toward war appears to have slowed. For one, those most directly involved in the OSP-AIPAC scandal and prosecutions are all Iran specialists. With the recent indictment of Larry Franklin (Feith’s Iran desk officer) and moves toward prosecution of AIPAC’s Iran expert, Keith Weissman, and the sudden flight back home of their handler at the Israeli Embassy (Naor Gilon, also an Iran specialist), the FBI seems to have rolled up the principal operational officers in the neocon Iran war party.

Another is the stiff resistance which the Bolton nomination has met in the Senate, and the fact that it is also opposed by some very powerful figures in the Administration, the Pentagon, and the intelligence community. Bolton has been one of the loudest voices in the lead up to hostilities with Iran over its alleged nuclear weapons program. It was thought that he would lead the charge at the UN later this month. Instead, Bolton has had the door closed on his face by nervous Senators, and there seems to be an eerie lull in the campaign to sanction Tehran.

Then, last week, the Europeans on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) agreed to continue talks with Iran over its nascent fuel enrichment program, rather than referring the matter to the UN Security Council for sanctions, as had been threatened.

Finally, unlike last year, George W. Bush did not show up in person to applaud Ariel Sharon’s performance at the annual AIPAC pep rally at the Washington Convention Center last weekend. In fact, after the two met at the Crawford ranch a couple weeks ago, both Ariel and W emerged looking like they had drained each other’s blood. This was in marked contrast to the sprightly prance through the Texas bluebells that Bush took just a few days later with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah.

There is no doubt that Iran is emerging stronger and more secure in itself and its neighborhood after the BushCo neocons and Likud so overplayed their hands in Iraq. There will be hell to pay for their strategic blunder, and it appears that the next round of blood-letting may be within the corridors of power in Washington and Jerusalem, rather than along the East Coast of the Persian Gulf.
By the same authors
Mark Levey
Perjury by CIA Counterterrorism Center Director
Blair Ignored Most Obvious Lesson of 9/11
Sharon’s Green Light

P.S. - Round and round we go, where she stops, no one knows. But, I still think the Establishment knows enough not to overplay this one.

[madrchsod]

5. we got more than 100 different kinds of mangoes

more india workers in the usa---boy is that going to piss off even more people
aids patients can take medical vactions to india cause it`s cheaper over there
and last but not least-if they have nuclear power that`s more oil for the usa!
my head hurts just typing this and what makes it worse is that it is pretty much what he said

[Pirate Smile]

8. kick