Friedman’s persistent neocon fantasy leaves out (as usual) the important facts

I have to say, it is amazing that Thomas Friedman gets away with it.

By “it”, I mean painting George Bush and his neocon policies as some sort of naive, clumsy, but well meaning and benign force in the Middle East.

This piece is Friedman’s fantasy (subscription) of what Bush might say right now to Iraq’s neighbors, a “Hail Mary*” pass to try and salvage Iraq. Friedman, amazingly, goes right back to arrogant neocon ideas, Bush’s stupid “War on Terror” arguments, neglects any mention of what the hell the US is doing in the Middle East anyway, completely omits any discussion or even mention of the central problem, the Palestinian-Israel situation, ignores the Saudis’ proposal, ignores the sentiments of the Iraqis, and generally has Bush saying: “I have been right all along, I’m still right, and I will always be right; you guys are all wrong. I need you to cover my ass, I need a smoke screen for failure, so give me some ideas I can float, but I’m still in charge, cause I know more than you do about the Middle East, Arabs, Kurds, Persians, Egyptians, and all the rest of the world, cause Paul Wolfowitz and Elliot Abrams told me, you Islamofascists you.”

Here is some of Friedman’s ridiculous piece:

Friends, we are losing in Iraq. But whom are we losing to? Is it to the Iraqi “Vietcong” — the authentic carriers of Iraqi nationalism? No, it is not. We are being defeated by nihilistic Islamist suicide bombers, who are proliferating across the Muslim world.

…

Don’t let your anger with me blind you to your own interests. You are holding your breath until I turn blue. But I’m not going to turn blue. You are. I want to get out of Iraq as soon as possible, but I need you Arab leaders to get off the fence. I know that you fear democracy in Iraq, but the alternative is much worse. If the jihadists win, the Arab world will have no future. I need your help in forging a settlement in Iraq and in denouncing this suicide madness from every mosque and minaret every hour of every day — with no qualifications.

And to Europe, China and Russia, I also say: Get off the fence — I can’t stabilize Iraq without your help. I don’t have the resources. I know I was a jerk in stiff-arming you. Believe me, I’m over it. I’m here to listen to what you want me to do. But unless we — the world of order — all pull together now, the forces of disorder are going to have their way, and there is no wall that will protect you.

*Hail Mary: a Roman Catholic religious/football term, suggesting a miraculous occurrence/play by a person or “saint” which saves “victory”/salvation or absolves sin at the very last moment.

Report: ex-FBI agent to be released by Iran

This story has the ring of truth, imho. If true, it would be another sign of the blooming of Condi’s garden.

The National Security News Service has learned that the government of Iran approved the release of former FBI Agent Robert Levinson on Sunday. Levinson, who was detained on March 8 after a meeting with an expatriate American and wanted murderer on Kish Island, has been in Iranian custody ever since.

The release order came after Secretary of State Rice said publicly that she would meet with her Iranian counterpart to discuss areas of interest to the United States and Iran in Iraq. But the upcoming meeting on May 3, and 4 between Rice her Iranian counterpart Manuchehr Mottaki in Egypt may be a major opening in the standoff between Iran and the West on its nuclear program.

The Iranian government ordered the release as part of an effort to communicate directly with the United States. A reliable NSNS source in Iran said, “This makes sense coming as it does timed with the announcement that Tehran will be at Sharm el-Sheikh and the one who carried the message into Baghdad is the nuclear negotiator [Ali Larijani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council].”

A first: al-Qaeda fighters identified as Saudi Arabians

Buried in the story of the possible killing of an al Qaeda leader in Iraq:

Late Tuesday, the leader of a Sunni Arab group opposed to al-Qaida told Iraqi television that his fighters tracked down and killed al-Masri along with seven of his aides, two of them Saudi Arabians.

I don’t read everything that comes out of Iraq but I don’t believe I have ever seen any identification of al Qaeda fighters as being Saudi Arabians, in spite of the obvious fact that many  of them are.  Of course, the fact that the great majority of the men who attacked the US on 9/11 were Saudi has also been effectively suppressed by Bush.  In fact, it is even difficult, from US propaganda, to discover that the majority of violence in Iraq is done by Sunnis. Instead of telling the truth about his Saudi/Sunni pals, Bush has screamed Syria, Iran, Saddam, Shiites, etc, none of whom were involved in either 9/11 or al-Qaeda, and in fact were enemies of al-Qaeda.

The enormity of Bush’s lies and their consequences are astonishing. Perhaps with the cooling of the Bush-Saudi relationship we will finally hear something that resembles the truth about the Middle East.

Halliburton’s dirty deal evades law against sales to Iran.

Recently Halliburton announced its headquarters were to move to Dubai. But in the hearing today, it slipped out that the Dubai office was originally opened so that Halliburton could engage the country of Iran in business. At that time there were US sanctions against dealing with Iran. But Halliburton did not break the law; instead they called the company Halliburton Parts and Services, established a Delaware type charter in Dubai, and as a foreign subsidiary, it was legally allowed to make multi million deals with the very country that was engaged in supplying Iraq’s insurgents, or so we were told……. Under questioning, Ms Williams admitted that the profits from Iran were the majority of the profits earned by the Dubai subsidiary, which incidentally was a subsidiary of the Cayman island branch of Halliburton. The profits were transferred to the Texas office effectively, if not legally, thereby allowing Halliburton to profit from selling to Iran, without “selling to Iran.” Currently Halliburton is under investigation by US Attorney’s office in Texas for dealings like these. Incidentally, to clarify this trail of deceit, 100 per cent of the profits of the Grand Cayman branch of Halliburton, came from Iran…

What does this have to do with Cheney? He retired years ago. Yes, on paper but mentioned in this hearing, I believe by Senator Lautenberg, Cheney’s stock options do not expire until 2009, well after his term in office has expired.

This means that he benefits whenever Halliburton benefits….

Many profiteers have gotten rich off suppling their country’s armies. But Halliburton breaks new ground, by being the first corporation to profit by supplying BOTH sides of a conflict that their country is engaged in, allowing them to be used by each other, against each other. And it was all done out of the Vice President’s office…………..

 Thanks to kavips at dKos. Funny what a little congressional oversight can reveal.

The US and Iran: Condi’s flower garden: Iraq promises to expel the MEK

From Juan Cole, we learn that a nasty weed is about to be uprooted:

[Iraq’s foreign minister] promised the Iranians that Iraq would expel from its territory the members of the anti-Tehran terrorist group, the Mojahedin-i Khalq (MEK or MKO). Saddam had given them a base, Camp Ashraf, from which they sent terrorists over the border to blow things up in Iran. The Neoconservatives in the US Department of Defense wanted to go on using MEK in this same way, but the State Department labeled them a terrorist organization. If this report is correct, the Iraqi government may at last have taken a decisive step in this regard. And, it was possibly a demand of the Iranians with regard to their attendance at the Sharm El Sheikh Conference this week.

If you will remember, Iran was one of our biggest helpers in getting after the Taliban and al-Qaeda after 9/11 (like Saddam, Iran was a natural enemy of these two groups) until the Bush administration neocons chose to make it into an Evil Country, and supported the MEK.

We really can’t make Elliot Abrams’ ex-sandbox into a flower garden until we get rid of this noxious weed.

Crazy people should not have guns or radio and television programs

Glenn Beck on Al Gore:
“[W]hat was the first thing they did to get people to exterminate the Jews. Now, I’m not saying that anybody’s going to — you know Al Gore’s not going to be rounding up Jews and exterminating them. It is the same tactic, however. The goal is different.”