It isn’t just hatred that makes it impossible to risk a near-term GOP return to power, it’s reckless violence that constitutes evil. Newt Gingrich is what passes for an intellectual in the Republican Party, and he wants to start a war with Iran so that we can create a responsible government there. How does he want to do that? By sabotaging their gasoline refinery. Never mind that Iran has nine of them, Gingrich thinks they only have one. And he thinks we can use covert operations (which he announces on Al-Jazeera) to take out that one refinery and that that will start a magic-pony ride ending with a responsible government in Tehran.
The only thing preventing us from doing this is that the Democrats are in power and that our generals are not lambs that will carry out any order no matter how stupid.
Even for someone as dumb as Gingrich is, this is beyond mind-boggling.
No, not if you assume his intention was not so much to really encourage the Obama Administration to follow his suggestions (he knows they won’t), but rather to goad and incite public anger and suspicion in the Muslim world, and weaken the chances of the Obama administration to carry out reasonable diplomacy.
Necons need a Great Enemy — and with the loss of Communism, they’ve apparently settled on “Muslim Extremists” — so it promotes their “They’re Out To Get Us ALL” agenda if he can provoke anger (and possibly real terrorism) from those groups, and undermine chances of peaceful negotiations.
Gingrich is the posterchild for what happens when pretty smart people decide to give up their intellects to be Republicans. He could have been a somewhat valuable part of an honest political dialog. Some of his past notions on technology/society have been at least worth thinking about. But he’s more interested in being a herder of fools and so has to come up with brainless boilerplate like this.
A Republican mind was a terrible thing to waste.
Yes, and as I remind myself while munching my afternoon cookie, a waist is a terrible thing to mind.
As long as Dennis Ross is in power this it could still happen.
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Israeli minister Yossi Peled is seeking sanctions and regime change… against the USA!
Dennis Ross, a U.S. diplomat who has served both Republican and Democratic administrations in negotiations on Middle East peace and other foreign policy issues.
Ross got his start in high-level policymaking working under Paul Wolfowitz in the Pentagon during the Jimmy Carter administration.
In 2006, Ross joined a cast of neoconservatives and foreign policy hawks in supporting the I. Lewis Libby Defense Fund.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Oh good, more regime change. That usually works out well.
If Gingrich desires regime change, he should start at home with his own political party. That’s a task that is long overdue and that the former leader of the House Republicans might be able to make a contribution or two.The arrogance of Americans who seek to alter Iran’s way of life is just so—–imperial.
Well, look. Iran, which does not have nuclear weapons, has abided by its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferations Treaty, and which has not attacked another country for centuries, should model its government after Israel, which has hundreds of nuclear weapons which it will not admit to, refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and can’t seem to go more than a few months without committing some act of aggression – now THAT’s a responsible government!
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TEHRAN, Iran – Iran is preparing a package of proposals to present to Western powers that could be a basis for future talks, the country’s foreign minister. Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference that the package deals with political and economic issues as well as security and international affairs but did not say whether its proposals also covered Iran’s nuclear activities.
≈ Cross-posted from my diary — Sarkozy Warns Israel on Iran Strike ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."How much OIL STOCK does Newt have?
Generals, retired or active, who pushed for “internal enemies” to the Constitution to be .. what?
What are Generals or other military allowed by law to do to suspected, much less identified “internal enemies”? Even within the support of the law, what real action has ever been taken in such case?
You have to love this language! A “responsible government in Iran” means, of course, nothing but a government that will serve as a U.S. client.
The resuscitation of Newtie from his primordial slime by mainstream media leads many to forget the antics he indulged in when his own party ran him off. There were things like his suggestion of Dickensian camps for children wrested from parents he deemed bad.
That just about sums up the entire Republican schtick — it’s not us it’s all those other worthless, bad people.
Now that MSM keeps us pickled in the likes of Sarah Palin and angry, red-faced talking heads 24 x 7, Newtie has slithered back again.
We should not encourage them but it looks like they got you because we’re still discussing him even though it is the same sort of morbid fascination reserved for roadkill.