The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    War Fever at NPR's Diane Rehm show

    By NCD on Mon, 08/25/2014 - 2:15pm |

    I listened to the NPR August 25th Monday morning Diane Rehm Show and it was scarier than anything since, yes, since, 9/11/01:

    U.S. Strategy In The Battle Against ISIS

    ....the Obama administration is under growing pressure to strike ISIS on Syrian soil. A discussion of U.S. strategy to combat ISIS....

    We are apparently already fighting 'battles', ergo, we must already be at war with ISIS ....friends...... (..a McCainism.....I apologize for adopting, making you think I'm a good buddy. I'm not, but I don't want your kids or grandkids lives lost in another US Middle East conflict)

    All Diane's panelists unanimously agreed ISIS is a national security threat to the US, and will be even more of a threat to the USA if we attack them, which is precisely what the guests said we need to do.

    From the Syrian border of Turkey to the familiar sands of Iraq. Bomb, bomb bomb. 'Push back'. Like we did at the Mosul Dam out in the middle of nowhere in the desert. Great victory there.

    It was notable that Diane left only 10 minutes for listener call-ins, and had only one caller saying 'Haven't we heard all this scary stuff before, and where did it get us?'

    Scary picture of guy with big gun was at top of the Diane Rehm Show's page:

    Guests on the show:

    Ambassador James Jeffrey - former US ambassador to Iraq, 2010 - 2012. In 2013 he made the extraordinary and astute conclusion that: “too much money was spent (in Iraq) with too few results.”  He went through a very frightening list of bad things ISIS could do to America. It did not include gassing us with crop dusters containing biowarfare agents like anthrax. Hurray, don't need more duct tape! 
    If you want to get really terrified about what ISIS could do to us, listen to the show at the website above. He also added, we are more likely to get attacked if we attack ISIS, but we must of course. Why? Save the people in Iraq and give 'liberty to strangers'. Sound familiar? also 'Get local politicians to unite'. Haven't we been trying that for more than a decade in both Iraq and Afghanistan? Did it work when we had 100,000 combat boots on the ground? Will it work now? Ever?
     
    Michael Leiter - senior counselor, Palantir Technologies; former director of the National Counterterrorism Center under President George W. Bush. Palantir Technologies does a lot of work for the CIA. Need I say more on this guy?
     
    Eric Schmitt - terrorism correspondent, The New York Times. The Times has a 'terrorism correspondent'?
     
    Nora Bensahel - senior fellow and co-director of the Responsible Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security. The Center for a New American Security was founded in 2007. I thought by then after 7 years of GW Bush and 2 wars, our security was guaranteed? Apparently not. One of their favorite speakers is General David Petraeus the guy who supposedly 'won victory' in Iraq, which is now 1/2 controlled by ISIS.
    Nora had the complete audacity to actually say, the people living under ISIS and what they want or do will be a big factor as to how long ISIS lasts. The woman has chutzbah!
     
    Rear Adm. John Kirby - press secretary for the Pentagon. Wasn't going to tell us much. Knows a lot of top secret stuff.  I recall he said the Pentagon has plans for everything. Except abject failure. 
    That's where we spend a lot of money, blow up a lot of stuff and kill a lot of people and then things just get worse. Like Iraq. Where they want to try it again.
     
    It's got me thinking I might vote for Rand Paul, not 'warhawk' Hillary, if she runs. Yet, Rand Paul even at his best and most assertive, may be like chicken liver in the meat grinder of the war profiteers and scaremongers of America. Which now seems to include NPR News.

     

    Comments

    Rand has a good shot I believe... here is why.... http://www.yaliberty.org/convention/2014/report


    by esse (not verified) on Tue, 08/26/2014 - 9:17am

    Can any politician win a nomination, get elected and firmly carry out a policy of not 'spreading freedom' or 'protecting America' with weapons transfers, bombing and drone attacks? Even NPR is beating the war drums. The Middle East is a never ending meal ticket for the US arms industry.

    I support helping the Kurds defend themselves. And that's it.

    If ISIS is forced out of Sunni Iraq the Iranian backed militias will just go in and slaughter Sunni's like they did in the ethnic cleansing of Baghdad. We are now seeing a division of Iraq, that might have been accomplished more peaceably when Biden suggested it years ago.


    by NCD on Tue, 08/26/2014 - 11:16am

    Although I'm not the biggest fan of Rand (or Ron) Paul, if I were I'd be afraid of sticking my hopes on the backs of college students. I did that in 2004 (when I was a back-to-school grad student), seeing the enthusiasm for getting rid of Bush (if not a matching enthusiasm for Kerry), only to be solely disappointed by their actual turnout at the polls.


    by Verified Atheist on Tue, 08/26/2014 - 12:52pm

    That's where mandatory voting (Australia) helps, somewhat. Exploiting ignorance, hate and fear are the standby voter motivation tools here and elsewhere in democracies.

    Mother Jones reports on a survey that 1/4 of American think they will get Ebola. Maybe some guy can get elected using it. Ebola fears also seems high on Donald Trump's worry list too, showing money doesn't ensure intelligence.


    by NCD on Tue, 08/26/2014 - 1:12pm

    The "we must do something" side is definitely dominating the debate.  There is still recognition, though, that the U.S. public isn't going to stand for another ground war.  Right now, that puts a hard limit on what can be done.  Americans will, I think, tolerate drones and air strikes. If casualties from our side are the result, it's unclear to me whether or not people would move to support a wider war or demand a more complete withdrawal.

    I do think, with enough repetition, that the hawks can move public opinion.  It is very easy to characterize doves as well-meaning but unrealistic, if not as total wimps.  It is very hard, even for a dove-leaner like me, to shrug off the accusation that ISIS has already attempted genocide and that it intends to accomplish it.

    Also, ISIS has four American hostages in Syria right now.  Publicize that and attitudes could definitely change.


    by Michael Maiello on Tue, 08/26/2014 - 2:41pm

    Accurately stated, without a doubt.

    Looking at all the byzantine collection of groups in the region attacked by ISIS (now we know where the complicated and devious connotations of 'byzantine' and its connection to the region of the 'Levant' was derived) it seems only the Kurds are not engaging in massacres, and are also providing refuge for people who are not the same ethnic group.

    The Shiite procrastinators and ethnic militia backers in Baghdad have refused to give arms, or even ammunition, to the Kurds. For those reasons I support helping the Kurds.

    If we get into Syria, we could wind up with planes shot down, 'collateral damage' deaths of civ's, and also paving the road for Assad to go in and slaughter people. While having even less ability to influence the final outcome than we had in Iraq, which is an ongoing disaster.


    by NCD on Tue, 08/26/2014 - 6:37pm

    I don't think NCD has answered the case for war, which isn't bloodthirsty or warmongering.  It may not be right, though.


    by Aaron Carine on Tue, 08/26/2014 - 3:13pm

    There, this is what they'll do to themselves, when Iran and others acquire the Nukes.

    http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/terran71/Better.jpg


    by Resistance on Tue, 08/26/2014 - 5:55pm

    I've always thought if the Pak Taliban got hold of a Pak nuke, not impossible- they have attacked Pak bases, they would detonate it, and fast in Pakistan.

    Perhaps to take out an Army base (and everything within miles). Or a police academy (and the city it is in).

    Think of it as suicide bombing on a nuclear scale. Plus it would be a stark show for the locals (their main audience and primary targets for domination) showing Allah blesses the Taliban with big weapons.


    by NCD on Tue, 08/26/2014 - 6:37pm

    We sure are living in critical times. 

    I found this picture looking for the location of the Valley of Megiddo, which appears close to Jordan.  While we are focused on ISIL in the North what about the southern flank?


    by Resistance on Tue, 08/26/2014 - 6:55pm