So, Obama's named this guy Dennis Ross as a "top envoy on the Middle East"...

[laststeamtrain]

or or top advisor or something like that.

Let's take a look at where this guy's been.

"Ross got his start in high-level policymaking working under Paul Wolfowitz in the Pentagon during the Jimmy Carter administration, where Wolfowitz headed up a project called the Limited Contingency Study, the results of which, writes author James Mann, “would play a groundbreaking role in changing American military policy toward the Persian Gulf over the coming decades.”

That doesn't sound too good.

"After the election of Ronald Reagan, Wolfowitz became head of the State Department’s Policy Planning staff, where he assembled a team of advisors that included a number of figures who later became closely involved in neoconservative-led campaigns, including Ross, I. Lewis Libby, James Roche, Zalmay Khalilzad, Alan Keyes, and Francis Fukuyama. Discussing this period, Mann points to Ross in arguing that “not everyone on staff was a neoconservative. … The fact remained, however, that Wolfowitz’s policy planning staff turned out to be the training ground for a new generation of national security specialists, many of whom shared Wolfowitz’s ideas, assumptions, and interests.”

Wow. The guy's a neocon, huh?

"Ross’s role in the Clinton administration was later assessed by the international relations scholars John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt in their controversial 2006 paper for Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.” Mearsheimer and Walt wrote, “During the Clinton Administration … Middle East policy was largely shaped by officials with close ties to Israel or to prominent pro-Israel organizations—including Martin Indyk, the former deputy director of research at AIPAC and co-founder of the pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP); Dennis Ross, who joined WINEP after leaving government in 2001; and Aaron Miller, who has lived in Israel and often visits there. These men were among President Clinton’s closest advisors at the Camp David summit in July 2000. Although all three supported the Oslo peace process and favored creation of a Palestinian state, they did so only within the limits of what would be acceptable to Israel.”

It's like that proverbial nightmare that keeps getting worse & worse.

"In 2006, Ross joined a cast of neoconservatives and foreign policy hawks in supporting the I. Lewis Libby Defense Fund, an initiative aimed at raising money for the disgraced former assistant to Vice President Dick Cheney who was convicted in connection to the investigation into the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame’s name. Ross served on the group’s steering committee along with Fred Thompson, Jack Kemp, Steve Forbes, Bernard Lewis, and Francis Fukuyama.24 The group’s chairman was Mel Sembler, a real estate magnate who serves as a trustee at AEI and has funded the group Freedom’s Watch."

"After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Ross supported the advocacy work of PNAC, a neoconservative-led letterhead group that advocated overthrowing Saddam Hussein in response to the attacks, even if he was not tied to the them.26 Ross signed two PNAC open letters on the situation in post-war Iraq, both published in March 2003. The first of these, “Statement on Post-War Iraq,” was issued on March 19, 2003, the day before the United States began its invasion. The letter argued that Iraq should be seen as the first step in a larger reshaping of the region’s political landscape, contending that the invasion and rebuilding of Iraq could “contribute decisively to the democratization of the wider Middle East.” Other signatories included Max Boot, Eliot Cohen, Thomas Donnelly, Joshua Muravchik, and several other core neoconservatives."

Alright, that's it. What in the wide world of sports is going on?

What's this guy doing in the 'hope & change' Obama administration?



( The above quotes are from Right Web's Profile of Dennis Ross.
http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/4786.html )

[leftofthedial]

1. "the 'hope & change' Obama administration"?

:rofl:


we can hope something might randomly change someday.

[Freddie Stubbs]

2. I'm sure Obama was completely unaware of this guy's background when he picked him

;)

[laststeamtrain]

4. He was thinking about that puppy I bet.

:eyes:

[Sebastian Doyle]

3. I'll say it again. Anybody whose name appears on ANY document from PNAC

should be tried for treason, and dealt with appropriately upon conviction. They should not be allowed anywhere near the US government and DAMN SURE nowhere near a supposedly Democratic administration.

There is absolutely NO acceptable justification for including even one of these fucking piece of shit enemies of the American people in the Obama administration.

NONE. :grr:

[Freddie Stubbs]

9. Apperently the President-elect is as averse to PNACers as you are

I wonder why.

[Sebastian Doyle]

15. You drinking tonight, Fred?

Because your posts in this thread aren't making a lot of sense. Even by your usual DLC toady standards. ;)

[bvar22]

13. You would lose the whole executive staff of the DLC.

I would celebrate.
:party:

[Sebastian Doyle]

14. Even better then.

After getting their asses handed to them in the primary, they should have been dead and buried anyway.

[Individualist]

27. Agree!

:thumbsup:

[burythehatchet]

5. I want a reason to change my sig line.

[ShortnFiery]

6. The best and most "fair mined envoy" to the ME was ret General Anthony Zinni.

We need Anthony Zinni not Dennis Ross.

http://www.palgrave-usa.com/catalog/product.aspx?isbn=1403971749

"The Battle For Peace", was released in April 1, 2006. Zinni argues that the roots of the world's growing turmoil are not being addressed and that America's aggressive confidence is making it worse--with potentially devastating implications for the safety of Americans.

In April 2004, Zinni gave a lecture entitled "From the Battlefield to the Negotiating Table: Preventing Deadly Conflict" at the University of San Diego's Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Distinguished Lecture Series.
Books

Gen. Tony Zinni (ret.) and Tony Koltz (foreword by Tom Clancy) (April 2006). The Battle for Peace: A Frontline Vision of America's Power and Purpose. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 1-4039-7174-9.
Tom Clancy, Gen. Tony Zinni (ret.) and Tony Koltz (2004). Battle Ready. Grosset & Dunlap. ISBN 0-399-15176-1.

[leftchick]

7. because hope and change

was a slogan. Nothing more. :(

[waiting for hope]

8. There needs to be a form ready with

blanks:

Obama appointed _________________ to ________ of ____________________, ____________________. S/he has a long history


of being a neocon and worked under (please choice only two): Cheney Rumsfield Tenet Bolton Bennett for


_________ years and helped write _______________________ policies and supported ____________________.


This is getting to be a broken record.

[n2doc]

10. Sounds like those hoping for a rational response to the Gaza crisis

from Obama on the 20th are going to be disappointed. This is revolting.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. "Change" aka Triangulation to the right.

The "Big Tent" has seating only on the right and center.

[ShadesOfGrey]

12. What in the hell is O thinking? This doesn't sound good at all. nt

[Autumn]

16. Ok this is

just too fucking crazy. Who the hell is making these choices?

[tkmorris]

17. He hasn't even taken office yet!!

You can't criticize him at thi....

Oh never mind. My heart's just not in it anymore. Get ready for 4 years of absolute centrism folks. Even when the center is wrong.

[glitch]

20. It will only be centrism if he peoples his administration with as many progressives as he is

with centrists and neo-cons. Not seeing it so far, which means his centrism is center-right, at best.

[tkmorris]

21. You are correct. I am trying to be optimistic

It isn't working for me so far.

[glitch]

23. You seem to be doing better than I am! I'll keep trying. nt

[glitch]

18. Apparently post-partisan means appeasement in this new american century.

Aren't their any center-right moderates that Obama can reach across the aisle to? Does he have to go far right to achieve his post-partisan dream?

It just keeps getting better and better.

[I814U]

19. K & R

If you were like me you got lost in the speeches about hope and change. I can only come to 2 possibilities:

A) Obama just sang us a sweet song just to get elected. He really wasn't the progressive his rhetoric and his career made him out to be. While it may have been the cons who wailed and gnashed their teeth they really had nothing to fear, we were the ones getting suckered.

B) We gravely underestimated the traitors, those who would stage phony wars, wiretap, imprison and torture to expand and protect their spheres of influence. They hold sway in the military, law-enforcement and "intelligence" communities as well as industries vital to the nation and they will not relinquish their power lightly to some "neophyte" (as our president has been slandered) just because his campaign slogan is CHANGE.

There is one more possibility:

C) Ross really is a dedicated public servant with America's best interests at heart and PE Obama knew Ross was the best man for the job who could share his future for America's future foreign policy goals in the biggest war zone on the planet.

:sarcasm:

So, were we duped or are we seeing the manifestations of the fascists refusing to give up their power and forcing Obama into directions he would never accept on his own?

Maybe this is why Israel felt green-lighted to attack Gaza: they knew their neocon PNAC'er was going to be around to keep an eye on our president.

[rockymountaindem]

22. He wasn't even progressive in his rhetoric

I wanted him over Clinton, and definitely over McCain, but I never thought he was going to be all that progressive.

[glitch]

24. We did expect him to be center though, certainly not center-right let alone right-center.

McCain would have just been right-batshit, that Obama is better than McCain is more of a backhanded insult than a compliment (I mean, who isn't? Even Bush appears to be better than what McCain showed himself to be).

[I814U]

25. Did you ever think Obama was a neocon enabler?

If so then we could have saved a bunch of money on elections and just flipped a coin. Besides, what part of his educational work in Chicago and fair-housing law etc WASN'T progressive? To say he isn't progressive is to say we don't know our own and that might be a bit insulting to a lot of DU'ers.

And why were the rank-and-vile cons freaking out so badly? Remember the Joe the Plumber rancor?

So again I have to ask: were we duped or is there a something else going on?

[EFerrari]

33. We chose between two candidates and one of them was John McCain. n/t

[K Gardner]

37. Duped ! We were DUPED ! Its a neocon conspiracy, or Muslim takeover. Pick one.

[FatDave]

26. Bill Hicks once said:

"After you’re elected you are ushered into this smoke-filled room with the twelve industrialist capitalist scum-fucks that got you elected, a screen comes down and you are shown a film of the Kennedy assassination from an angle you’ve never seen before, looking suspiciously off the grassy knoll. The lights come up and they say to the new President, ‘Any questions?’"

[Canuckistanian]

28. Wolfowitz must have turned the gig down

So Obama sent in a second stringer.

C'mon, Barack, "reaching out to the other side" HAS LIMITS.

[autorank]

29. Give me a F#%*ing break! Gupta was bad enough, but this.

What B.S.

I can't even begin to believe this one. I'm stunned. The depths of cynicism.

[leveymg]

30. He's there to reassure the Israelis. He's on a short leash. No other reason for appointing him.

Fact is, Obama has to negotiate with Israel (along with the rest of the stakeholders in the region - he will be the first President to try this in the open), and Ross seems the sort of guy who would have a soothing influence. I'm sure Ross will be given very limited discretion to set policy.

[Dhalgren]

31. Bullshit.

Nice try, though.

I am sick and tired of every time Obama appoints a war criminal or traitor or neocon bag-man, some one jumps up and says "Oh, don't worry, Obama's going to do this or that and this is just to do this and that. He is just fooling the right-wing. Blah, blah, fucking blah."

Obama is about to assume the Imperium. He will be Emperor on the 20th, and you may not grok that, but apparently he does.

As far as I am concerned all bets are off. Obama being a better Emperor than Bush is not something to cheer about, it's something to cry about.

Meet the new boss...

[leveymg]

32. So you think it would be better if everyone who gets appointed to deal with Israel are

vociferous critics of the Israelis? I'm sure you're aware that some of the Israelis are already bat-shit crazy paranoid about the Obama Administration, as it is. And, they do have nuclear weapons and have threatened repeatedly to use them preemptively against their neighbors.

Some might say that when negotiating with an aggitated person holding a loaded gun in a crowded room that the initial approach is best made by someone with a smiling, familiar face.

You do understand the SWAT team reference, don't you?

[glitch]

34. I find it hard to believe that the only people with smiling familiar faces are neocons.

and there are (at least) two agitated sides to this particular SWAT event (this is where your SWAT analogy fails).
Shouldn't he have found someone who was at least acceptable to both sides? Is that not possible in this world? Joe Wilson comes to my mind. Very experienced in SWAT diplomacy and not a neocon. Amazing! They can be found.

[leveymg]

35. Yes, there are others who can do that sort of work.

But, only side has a gun that's truly loaded. The other guy of interest in the room has a bar of soap carved to look like a pistol, which is being half-hidden. So the analogy holds. Of course, there's the third perspective, that through the scopes of the SWAT snipers, and their rifles are definitely loaded and scoped in, perhaps on both of the gunmen.

Ross doesn't have to be acceptable to both sides. Likely, he'll be tasked to conduct diplomacy in Jerusalem, not Tehran. What he really is an emissary from WINEP, and part of the Clinton camp.

[K Gardner]

36. Can we just start a drinking game for threads like this? If we did, I'd be drunk 24/7 . Here we go

again.. another poutrage from the peanut gallery.

[NashVegas]

38. Given the Choice Between "Poutrage" and STFUObamatics

I'll take poutrage, thanks. At least they get past it.

[laststeamtrain]

39. Maybe you are drunk 24/7. Leave the sober people alone. n/t.