In my opinion, Dick Cheney is the most dishonest politician in American politics. By that, I mean that he has less regard for the factual basis of what he says than anyone I’ve ever observed. But sometimes he says exactly what he means (which is a form of truth) and everyone kind of misses it.
In a victory speech of sorts on Inauguration Day in January 2005, Vice President Dick Cheney warned bluntly that Iran was “right at the top” of the administration’s list of “trouble spots”—and that Israel “might well decide to act first” by attacking Iran. The Israelis, Cheney added in an obvious swipe at moderates in the State Department, would “let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterward.”
Here is a little note from the June 18, 2006 Jerusalem Post (Lexis-Nexis only):
Netanyahu discusses Iran with Cheney
Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu met with US Vice President Dick Cheney at the American Enterprise Institute World Forum at Beaver Creek in Colorado on Friday.
During the meeting Netanyahu spoke mainly about the threat of the Iranian nuclear program. According to Netanyahu’s spokesman Cheney complimented him on the results of his fiscal policies as finance minister in the Sharon government.
There are unsubstantiated reports that Rumsfeld also attended the Beaver Creek conference. In any case, Netanyahu reported back to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and a strategy was hammered out among the leaders of Israel.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to convene the first meeting of the “ex-prime ministers” club Monday to discuss the Iranian nuclear issue and how best to deal with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Olmert and opposition head Binyamin Netanyahu last month agreed to the establishment of this informal forum to discuss sensitive security issues like Iran.
Three of the five living former prime ministers – Netanyahu Ehud Barak and Shimon Peres – are expected to take part along with Olmert while 90-year-old Yitzhak Shamir will not and Ariel Sharon remains in a comatose state.
Netanyahu said last month that since each of the prime ministers had dealt with the Iranian issue from different angles integrating their knowledge and experience could help Olmert deal with the threat.
One source in the Prime Minister’s Office said that there was no particular reason for the meeting to be held Monday and that it was not tied to any immediate new developments on the Iranian nuclear issue.
The source said that beyond Olmert’s desire to tap into the experience of the former prime ministers there was also a political component to the issue: These meetings would be a way for Olmert to build a national consensus on how to deal with Iran and to neutralize any possible future criticism of the government’s Iran policy by Netanyahu…
…Netanyahu intends to report to the prime minister on his meetings over the weekend at the American Enterprise Institute conference in Boulder Colorado. Netanyahu spoke at great length on the Iranian issue with US Vice President Dick Cheney.
Cheney and Netanyahu (and possibly Rumsfeld) met in mid-June to discuss how to address the threat of Iran going forward. Then Netanyahu met with Olhert, Barak, and Peres to convey America’s thinking. And now we are expected to believe that the attack on Hezbollah (Iran’s proxy) was the result of a cross-border incursion and not a pre-planned and coordinated policy of the United States and Israel. I don’t believe it. Do you?
The Beaver Creek meeting was hosted by William Kristol’s American Enterprise Institute, and they are now looking to derail any diplomatic solutions to the crisis in Lebanon. Their target is Condoleezza Rice.
A rare exception to the talk-for-talk’s-sake norm of recent years is Washington’s approach to the Israeli conflict with Hizbollah. But all signs point to a weakening of resolve inside the Bush administration. Earlier this week, trial balloons began floating from Ms Rice’s mission to the Middle East: perhaps talks in Rome could bring a call for a peace-making force and a ceasefire. Talks are likely to bring little more than concerted pressure on the US and Israel to back down on the ultimate disarmament of Hizbollah. A ceasefire under any circumstances other than Hizbollah’s complete disarmament would be construed as another victory for the terrorist agenda.
Moonie Times affiliate, Insight, picks up the fight.
“Conservative national security allies of President Bush are in
revolt against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, saying that she is
incompetent and has reversed the administration’s national security and
foreign policy agenda,” reports Insight Magazine.
So, let’s examine. Cheney predicts that Israel may unilaterally attack Iran and leave the international community to pick up the pieces. Israel unilaterally attacks Iran’s proxy army on their border with Lebanon. They have no plan for victory and request an international peace keeping force. There is no prospect of an international peace keeping force going into Lebanon under current conditions. This leaves it up to America to step into the breach. To get an idea what kind of breach it is check out Anthony Shahid’s heartbreaking dispatch from southern Lebanon.
Is this all going according to some plan?
The shift in official policy has thrilled former members of the cabal. To them, the war in Lebanon represents the final step in their plan to turn Iran into the next Iraq. Ledeen, writing in the National Review on July 13th, could hardly restrain himself. “Faster, please,” he urged the White House, arguing that the war should now be taken over by the U.S. military and expanded across the entire region. “The only way we are going to win this war is to bring down those regimes in Tehran and Damascus, and they are not going to fall as a result of fighting between their terrorist proxies in Gaza and Lebanon on the one hand, and Israel on the other. Only the United States can accomplish it,” he concluded. “There is no other way.”
To see my prior articles on Ledeen, see this, this and this.
It’s time to get serious now people. The Democrats are lining up to prove they are more pro-Israel than the neo-conservatives. This will only enable the neo-conservatives’ plans for starting World War Three (their pre-packaged talking point for Israel’s bombing campaign). Something must be done. Understanding what is happening is the starting point. Email this information to all your friends and family and then call your representatives. Tell them we don’t want World War Three and we don’t want to follow the Beaver Creek and American Enterprise Institute’s crazed strategic vision. We want peace and reconciliation.
