Comments for We are Watching a Golden Moment Slip Away in Iran. at http://www.michaelyon-online.com , comment 1 to 2 out of 2 comments http://www.michaelyon-online.com Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:56:17 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.michaelyon-online.com/we-are-watching-a-golden-moment-slip-away-in-iran.htm#comment-19243 Paul Wolfowitz should be completely discredited by now. He did terrific work in the first Bush Administration, marshalling support for the first Gulf War, but then never let his obsession with taking out Saddam Hussein overrule what common sense that he had. As a member of the second Bush Administration's inner circle, he helped create the policy of preemptive defense- which was basically used as an excuse to take out any nation's leadership that the Bushies decided they didn't like. Shades of this policy (which has turned out to be a really stupid idea for America and for the world) run through this editorial. His belief is that the United States needs to stick its nose into other nations' business. President Obama's statements have expressed support for people exercising their free rights, support for a true and honest election, yet refrained from coming across to the Iranians as the US dictating to them how things should go. Despite this, the mullahs and regime in power in Iran immediately tried to paint it as though Americans were interfering with their affairs. Obama is wisely trying to avoid exactly that; by not giving the Iranian power mongers an excuse to make this about them defending their Islamic Republic against the meddling Americans Obama is steering a cautious course. But whether we choose to agree or disagree on the President's course, one thing that should be obvious is that listening to nitwits like Wolfowitz is not going to help us. He led us into an unnecessary war in Iraq that has sapped our nation's armed forces, leaving us far less capable to deal with the threats in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Wolfowitz supported going after Iraq on 9/11, despite the fact that Iraq had nothing to DO with the 9/11 attacks. Using 9/11 as a pretext for achieving personal agendas is about as heinous as you can get, yet Wolfowitz led the Bush Administration in doing exactly that. He was a strong proponent of the idea that the Iraqi war would pay for itself via oil revenues. He believed, despite a lack of actual evidence, that Iraq had a large WMD program. He couldn't imagine that it might take even 100,000 troops to stabilize Iraq after the war. He was a strong supporter of Chalabi, despite the fact that the CIA knew perfectly well that Chalabi was full of crap and useless. Wolfowitz was crucial in setting up the OSP (Office of Special Plans), the group that came to be relied upon for "evidence" of WMD. The DIA and CIA both disagreed with the OSP on the WMD issue, but because Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld desperately wanted to believe Iraq had WMD, the OSP wound up creating the impression that Iraq had the weapons- and the President listened to them. Of all the people to listen to, on BOTH sides of the aisle, Paul Wolfowitz is definitely not one of them. Someone who has shown himself to be more than willing to use the power of the United States of America to carry out personal agendas (Wolfowitz was big in the Project for a New American Century) and who's shown himself willing to ignore reality and create his own idea of things is not someone that we should pay attention to. President Obama would be wise to ignore Wolfowitz, just as President George W Bush would have been wise to ignore him (and sadly didn't). - Paul Cox Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:04:24 +0100 http://www.michaelyon-online.com/we-are-watching-a-golden-moment-slip-away-in-iran.htm#comment-19242 THE PRESIDENT: To which I say, the last thing that I want to do is to have the United States be a foil for those forces inside Iran who would love nothing better than to make this an argument about the United States. That's what they do. That's what we're already seeing. We shouldn't be playing into that. There should be no distractions from the fact that the Iranian people are seeking to let their voices be heard. What we can do is bear witness and say to the world that the incredible demonstrations that we've seen is a testimony to I think what Dr. King called the "arc of the moral universal." It's long but it bends towards justice. - WIZ0101 Sat, 20 Jun 2009 03:45:39 +0100