THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN
Although I disagree with the earmark method that forced the issue concerning the Dubai ports deal, ( as I mentioned in yesterdays post), the voice of the people has moved the halls of Congress and today bowing to pressure the Dubai firm gave up operational rights to the six United States ports to a, "United States entity." Soon after the announcement I heard a press release that explained much of the reason why the President was so steadfast in his support for the deal. An additional 10 U.S. diplomats are going to Dubai and setting up shop to keep an eye on the Iran situation and starting a program similar to the, "Radio Free Europe, " program used to broadcast to people behind the, "Iron Curtain, " during the Cold War. Dubai and the UAE agreed to assist the United States in the Iran watch program and in broadcasting the voice of freedom into Iran to encourage those opposed to the current Islamic regime. Though a noble and necessary cause and one that will still move forward despite the end of the Dubai ports deal, it does not justify turning over management of terminals to the UAE. Basically the Dubai company passing operational control to a U.S. entity is a win, win situation. Even though the White House continued to back off of the veto threat today before the announcement this end prevents the veto confrontation between Congress and The White House and accomplishes the ending of the Dubai deal. All of this comes from the out cry of the people. An overwhelming 70% opposed the Dubai deal and Congressional Representatives responded to those who put them in office. We have actually been witness to the wisdom of the Founding Fathers as the true meaning of our Republic, "of the people, by the people and for the people, " accomplished the ending of the Dubai deal. No other country in the world has a form of government that is directly responsible to the people. For those who do not believe that our voice counts then I give you today's result as evidence that when we the people speak then our Representatives must listen. We can move the mountain of government when we speak in one voice and force the issues as we did this. The Dubai company stated that they chose this course of action to prevent damaging good relations with the United States. They too understand that when the people of this country speak then government must listen and act accordingly. The allied relationship that the President was concerned about damaging is still in force and strong and the will of the people to prevent a foreign country from having access to U.S. security has also been accomplished. I realize that this is an election year and those in Washington are seeking our vote for re-election and this may have been some of the motivation behind Congressional actions but regardless this proves once again that government still answers to the people and will continue to do so as has been the case since our birth as a nation.
Ken Taylor
Ken Taylor
posted by The Liberal Lie The Conservative Truth | 6:53 PM
11 Comments:
Finally, some Republicans were able to stand up for America instead of corporate interests. UAE is going to divest but will still have links to the new American company. Republicans and Democrats are still very interested in seeing what those links will be.
Of course, there is still the overall problem that Bush is selling American debt at a record pace to foreign entitities. He has sold more than $1 trillion in U.S. debt to foreign investors. That is how he is paying for his deficit spending.
Oh and by the way, we are not going to war with Iran any time soon. Because of the Iraq fiasco, Iran's position in OPEC, and the support they have from China, Russia, Pakistan, and even India, there is no realistic military option - no matter what nonsensical tough talk Cheney and Bush spit out.
I agree they cannot get a bomb, but they are far from that now if our intelligence is even reasonably accurate. Diplomacy is on tap for the next several years. War would worsen the situation in Iraq, and bolster Russia, China, Pakistan, and India geo-politically. Keep in mind that Iran is the number 2 oil producer in OPEC. The American economy cannot afford gas prices at $5.00/gallon. We would be in financial ruin.
The reason we went to Iraq was to implement the neocon agenda of bringing democracy to the Middle East. Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and their minion followers of the neocon ideology have wanted to do this for years.
But anyway, with respect to Iran, the bottom line is that we need to find a way to cut a deal diplomatically.
Diplomacy only works if BOTH parties are willing to listen and faithfully negotiate to a mutually benificial conclusion. The problem with Iran now is the same problem that happened during Carter's last year and one half in office. This radical regime has not changed since the Carter administration and does not negotiate or follow nor seek any diplomatic solution. They say one thing while doing another and someone will eventually have to move in order to prevent a nuclear Iran from exisiting as a threat to the region and the world. Whether air strikes or full invasion one or the other will take place to stop the Mullahs. I agree to use ALL diplomatic routes first but my instinct from Iran's past and the rhetoric of her present is that force is all they respond to and what will eventually end this problem.
Ken
You guys just don't know what you are talking about. We are literally years from any attack on Iran. If we attack we will end up paying $5/gallon of gas or more - that won't happen because we cannot afford it.
We don't have a "beachhead" in Iraq. If we attack Iran, the Shiite majority in Iraq would rise up against the U.S. military in Iraq and it would become an even larger bloodbath for American soldiers. At least right now we are largely only fighting the Sunnis - but that would change overnight if there is an attack on Iran.
At the very least, there won't be any attack on Iran until we withdraw our forces from Iraq. And I can just about guarantee you we will not send ground forces in. There are 70 million Iranians as compared to 27 million Iraqis. Given the mess we have created in Iraq, there is no way we are going to invade Iran. We don't have a million U.S. soldiers to send in.
Air strikes are a possibility, but like I said we are years away from that and won't even consider it with our troops in harm's way in Iraq. Believe what you want, but it is an empty threat to provacatively threaten unilateral military action against Iran. I doubt we will even be able to get sanctions passed in the U.N. because American credibility in the world is so low and Iran offers great economic benefits to China and Russia, as well as a new gas pipeline to India and Pakistan.
The nuclear deal Bush agreed to with India only complicates matters. India has not signed on to the Nuke Nonproliferation Treaty, and Bush is not requiring it to sign - Iran has signed. Telling the world that India should be given nuke technology without signing the treaty was another huge foreign policy blunder.
Rob, I never suggested that we would attack Iran tomorrow but eventually it will happen. Additionally we may not be the attackers. Remember in 1981 with a similar problem with Iraq, Israel took out a nuclear plant near Baghdad and though the U.S. condemned it in public, behind the scenes President Reagan assured Israel of our support and continued help. This may not be the scenerio this time but Iran has in their minds been at war with the, "great satan," since 1979 and they wish our nation dead or dominated and if that means sacrificing their very existance to achieve that end then they will do it. Gas is not the only consideration when dealing with Iran. The safety of the region and even our own country is also in the matrix. At the end of last year reports of Iran shopping for a delivery system with the capability of reaching our east coast were being spread through the intelligence community. Soon after that is when the rhetoric by the Iranian President escalated. Iran will develope nuclear capability if not stopped and are most likely farther along than many expect. Not approaching Iran from a stand point of strength is the very reason they are pushing the envelope now. Islamic radicals such as the Iranian leadership respct no one and see diplomacy as weakness. You stated a population of 70 million but I dare say that a majority do not adhear to the radicalism of the leaders. Much of the country still lives a westernized society and do not abide by the Islamic radicalism that the government expresses. If a strong leader were to rise to lead the masses who are against the current government Iran's theocracy will fall.
Soldiers on the ground in mass in a Normandy style invasion is not the U.S. military of today. We would not need, "a million," troops to accomplish the mission. Remember one Nimitz class carrier has more fire power than every country in the world save two, the U.S. and great Britain. Iran could NOT stand up against this if the situation were to arrise for military action. Don't under estimate our military capabilities.
Much of the trouble in Iraq is because our military is allowing the Iraqi security forces to take the lead in most of the insurgency in order to allow Iraq to begin taking care of herself. The Iranian situation effects Iraq because of its close proximity of borders. I don't think that the Shiites will rise against our forces if Iran were to be attacked. Even they realize that the U.S. is protecting their country from total anarchy and allowing the establishment of a government in which ALL Iraqi factions are participants. The majority of Iraqis are more interested in their daily lives and putting 35 years of tyranny behind them and living in their new freedom.
Ken
Iraq was more westernized than Iran - by far. Look at what has happened.
I am fully aware that we could blow the entire Middle East 100 times over, but that is not likely because of the catastophic loss of life and the oil reserves.
Most of the problem in Iraq is that we do not have anywhere near the forces necessary to pacify the country - never had the numbers and certainly do not have them now. There is not a single Iraqi military battalion that can fight without American assistance.
At least you seem to agree that military action on Iran is not imminent. We have common ground on that issue.
"At least you seem to agree that military action on Iran is not imminent."
I would not go to Vegas and put money on that.
I wouldn't wager on it either, but only because I am not a gambling man (except for the occasional lotto ticket). However, if I were a gambling man I would be very comfortable making a sizeable bet that there will be no military action against Iran for at least the next year. I would be comfortable betting a smaller amount on two years.
Iran is critical to oil distribution around the world and they know they have great leverage:
http://news.yahoo.com/fc/world/iran
Our reliance on oil, our vulnerability in Iraq, and the way Bush undercut our standing on nuclear non-proliferation with his India deal have greatly limited our options.
Again, believe what you want. If it gives you comfort to think we are going to attack Iran, I am happy for you. I have two small kids and worry about the security of the U.S. just the same as the next guy, but the geo-political and economic realities of the situation make it a virtual impossibility.
Excuse me ken taylor but the topic of your blog seems to have deviated somewhat. You whine about other people taking control of the site and then you participate in this non sensical rant and further enflame the ridiculous statements by other commentators. At least one of you admits that america just takes what it wants and creates as many lies as necessary to convince the public the lies are the truth.
So many ridiculous statements that refuting every one of them is a waste of time.
You truly are evil whackos. How this rob person bothers to try and tell you any truths is unbelieveable. The clowns contributing to this blog are genocidal sociopaths on a scale that makes the nazis look like kindegardeners. They will say what ever to conquer the world. america is not a democracy but it is a nice illusion. The people have spoken and even after the media trying to hard sell it to the public nobodoy bought in. A one in a billion instance. Your country is run buy a bunch of whacko deviant plutocratic fascists, neo conservatives, the american military establishment and multinational corporations with a mask of evangelicalism and pilgrim politics to toss up the bible and hide behind Christ.
Poor rob, it is obvious these clowns are proud of the hell americans have caused in every country on this planet in the last fifty years. These clowns seem to think american corporations should be allowed to be as evil as they can be. These clowns love it when the media deliberatley hides america's evil behavior around the globe.
Theses clowns should really be wearing tutu's to go with the gaudy make up. democracy is alive? what a load of crap. Ross Perot didn't have enough money to buy his way into debating your presidential puppets.
Clowns who want to go to war.
america has an exponentially shrinking window of opportunity to conquer the world and remain the sole world superpower for maybe the next one hundred years. america created itself for the big fight and not the long run. As China and India's GDP grows america loses it's dominance. In the last year China took a significant chunk out of your leading GDP. Your plutocrats became richer but now you have less of an opportunity to have the big stick for much longer.
The ports deal was manufacturing consent for another major military conflict in the next 5-7 year window. Baiting the al qaeda terrorists to attack through these ports and enraging the american beast back into global conflict hoping to draw in the Chinese, Pakistani's, Indian's, Middle East, Russia and the rest of the world.
The world is becoming a very dangerous place as america acknowledges the rest of the world is catching them, america has already exploited every cheap labor force on the globe they could, soon there will be two other countries with massive GDP's to compete with the pentagon budget instead of just one in the cold war. The Russians are sitting on huge oil and natural gas supplies unbeknownst to the american public the price of gasoline in Russia is outrageously low, a fraction of what the rest of the world pays.
The neo conservatives, plutocrats, military establishment, evangelicals have been analyzing these scenarios for years and there is a diminishing window of maybe 7-10 years where america would be in the best position to benefit from armageddon. The advancement of technology and weapons is to unpredictable for the window to be longer than ten years.
These clowns would love to annihilate the rest of the world if it could maintain america's global dominance. The clowns have been working very hard to bring about global conflict. If you think the participants in the battle for world domination are any where near angelic you are delusional.
ken taylor can rant all he wants about this blog.
Maybe big bad ken taylor will erase this comment like he has before.
The truth hurts so how is it you are still alive?
Lucky for the likes of ken taylor and other americans rob is representative about one percent of america's population and the rest of the world can associate, can dialogue with him reasonably.
The rest of you whackos are genocidal sociopaths who would kill the world for an extra year or two of continued american dominance, evil, lies, slavery, violence, plutocracy, corruption, greed,...
I understand where you are coming from Rob, and I am glad you are looking out for your kids. You have a legit argument, and reason for it. Not saying I think you are right, but for what it is worth coming from me, you seem intelligent. Unlike anon who just rants.
I don't want war, but yes I do like knowing we can blow the hell (pardon) out of everything. Is it in a nutty way, no. I want to know we have the ability to do so, and I can be assured we won't go down the MAD road thanks to people like you. Opposing viewpoints are good, rants...not.
Thanks to my job, I opted out of starting a family. I have my friends but would not start a family right now because the stress for all would be too much.
Hey just to let you know that yes I am promoting this but if you dont want to save at the pump then dont go to the site but I believe no matter who you are gas is just to expensive.
The goverment is using it and many other huge company's. This is not just some fly by night company or product. This is the real deal.
Post a Comment
<< Home