Bush’s salon revolutionaries plot an Iran coup (Ledeen)

[muriel_volestrangler]

The seriousness of his difficulties is shown by the way in which the American administration is courting an unlikely stage army of salon revolutionaries who are promising to provide a painless way to get rid of the nasty regimes of the “axis of evil” in Iran and North Korea.

Peter Ackerman, the very rich chairman of Freedom House, and his International Center on Nonviolent Conflict are engaged in a huge propaganda campaign designed to show how the worst of regimes can be toppled by the methods used — or claimed to have been used — to overthrow Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia and in the “colour” revolutions that led to pro-western regimes in Ukraine (the orange revolution) and Georgia (the rose revolution).
...
In the normal course of events it would not be worth considering the delusional arguments of Ackerman and his supporter Michael Ledeen, a journalist based at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), who was a central figure in the notorious Iran contra affair during President Reagan’s administration. But President Bush and Paula Dobriansky, the undersecretary of state, have both addressed meetings organised by Ackerman’s Freedom House in the past two weeks. There are many other signs that the policy of promoting revolution and regime change in Tehran is gaining ground in Washington.

The US president is very much in a “last-chance saloon” mood as he made clear recently to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. If he is to solve the problem of Iran’s nuclear ambitions he must achieve his objective before he leaves office in January 2009. So he is turning to a policy of subversion combined with plans for military action. There is convincing evidence that US diplomats are pressuring Turkish authorities to agree to the use of its main air base for attacks by American B-52 bombers on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-2124982,00.html

[Marie26]

1. Scary article

Have you considered posting this in GD? I think more people need to see this. Paula Dobriansky is one of the members of PNAC.

[cliss]

2. Yes, I've been following this story with great interest.

Here's what's been happening so far:

1) Bush asked for a $75 million "emergency funding" to help spread "democracy" in Iran, in addition to the $10 million already earmarked for that country.

2) Dick Cheney appointed his daughter, Liz Cheney, to be in charge of this project. She was last seen in Dubai, holding meetings with the Shah of Iran's son, Reza Pahlavi. Rumour has it that they want to install him as the "New Shah". He seems to be all for it.

3) Other Iranian fringe groups have been contacted by Cheney. They have come out and said "Take your money and shove it". Apparently, the US hasn't done a very good job at diplomacy, or maybe Cheney made it clear they would be a puppet regime. Not so popular these days.

4) I think this will hav about a 1% chance of succeeding. They're just going to blow the money on big, fat bribes, but will only get back-stabbed in the process.

5) I smell a certain desperation about all this. The Bush administration just seems so.....desperate. Absolutely in meltdown mode. I love the article on Counter Punch that said, "We've never been able to reconcile ourselves with the loss (of Iran)". This was after the Shah of Iran was kicked out.

[bemildred]

3. So, reluctantly, I went and read this piece.

It seems demented to me, not just the Bushite plans, but this fellows interpretation of them. I expect a nervous breakdown any time now. It's clear we are already in a incoherent cognitive state. For example, he thinks the colored revolutions were some sort of success.

[cliss]

5. I read it too, and I agree.

There's just this weird disconnect from reality....

The sky is so beautiful today, so pink! And the bushes are so beautiful in fluorescent purple....

Just imagine what their meetings must sound like! They probably turn into frenzied scream-fests. There are fists pounding the tables, glasses of water knocked over. Lots of cursing, red faces.

Angry, frustrated people. Trying to win support for their ideas, and angry frustrated people just as convinced they're nuts.

At the head of the table is Rumsfailed. The look on his face is completely maniacal. He's had too many defeats, too many people have been calling for his resignation. He wants a VICTORY and he wants one NOW. He doesn't care how they do it.

He'll show those asses in Congress just who's boss. ...

[Jack Rabbit]

4. The conclusion of the article is interesting

The problems are, first, that there seems to be no strategic thinking about the prospect of nuclear proliferation. Is it to be tackled by containment (as used against the Soviet Union and China in the cold war)? . . .

Second, the US administration lacks consistency . . . .

Third, Bush’s Washington still pays far too much heed to some of the wilder propagandists based in think tanks . . . .

Finally, the Bush administration needs to ensure that the transparent, positive activities in the field of democracy promotion conducted in many countries by the NED and by a network of publicly funded bodies are not made casualties of the battle against nuclear proliferation.

It would help, of course, if the Bushies would refrain from invading a country they claim needs to be disarmed once it is determined that the country had, in fact, disarmed.

[bemildred]

6. LOL. Yes. nt