Now that there's a ceasefire in the middle east
some interesting info is emerging about the USA's role in the run-up to the Israel/Lebanon war. And it's not pretty.
Journalist Seymour Hersh writes in the New Yorker that the US was very involved with Israel in planning the war, before the kidnapping of the 2 Israeli soldiers that was supposedly Israel's reason for launching the offensive. Hersh says he was told by diplomatic officials that "President Bush and Vice-President Cheney were convinced that a successful Israeli air force bombing campaign against Hezbollah's heavily-fortified underground missile and command-and-control complexes in Lebanon could ease Israel's security concerns and also serve as a prelude to a potential American pre-emptive attack to destroy Iran's nuclear installations..." This was the US/Israel plan. When the Israeli soldiers were kidnapped, they got the pretext to engage hostilities.
Bad as it is, this certainly explains a few things that didn't make sense a month ago. Israel's "over the top" response to the kidnappings -- well, this was never a response to the kidnappings, it was a war waiting for a pretext. Also the refusal of the US to call for a ceasefire, against world consensus, now makes more sense since the war was partly their plan.
It begs the question: are Bush and Cheney completely nuts? Iraq is a mess of epic proportions, Afghanistan is an unfinished and probably unwinnable quagmire, and they think it's a good idea to start another war to prepare for yet another war? I always thought there must be some rhyme or reason to what the Bush administration did, some self-serving purpose like raw swinish greed. But after reading Hersh's article, I'm really starting to wonder if they've crossed the line from the psychopathic to the psychotic. Impeach? These guys should be committed.
some interesting info is emerging about the USA's role in the run-up to the Israel/Lebanon war. And it's not pretty.
Journalist Seymour Hersh writes in the New Yorker that the US was very involved with Israel in planning the war, before the kidnapping of the 2 Israeli soldiers that was supposedly Israel's reason for launching the offensive. Hersh says he was told by diplomatic officials that "President Bush and Vice-President Cheney were convinced that a successful Israeli air force bombing campaign against Hezbollah's heavily-fortified underground missile and command-and-control complexes in Lebanon could ease Israel's security concerns and also serve as a prelude to a potential American pre-emptive attack to destroy Iran's nuclear installations..." This was the US/Israel plan. When the Israeli soldiers were kidnapped, they got the pretext to engage hostilities.
Bad as it is, this certainly explains a few things that didn't make sense a month ago. Israel's "over the top" response to the kidnappings -- well, this was never a response to the kidnappings, it was a war waiting for a pretext. Also the refusal of the US to call for a ceasefire, against world consensus, now makes more sense since the war was partly their plan.
It begs the question: are Bush and Cheney completely nuts? Iraq is a mess of epic proportions, Afghanistan is an unfinished and probably unwinnable quagmire, and they think it's a good idea to start another war to prepare for yet another war? I always thought there must be some rhyme or reason to what the Bush administration did, some self-serving purpose like raw swinish greed. But after reading Hersh's article, I'm really starting to wonder if they've crossed the line from the psychopathic to the psychotic. Impeach? These guys should be committed.
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