COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Monday, March 09, 2015

The Republicans want war with Iran - A US bombing raid on Iran would essentially be a rescue of ISIL in Iraq - The Republican Party needs to be destroyed

Bombing Iran: What would Happen if the Hawks got their Way?



Some of those who believe that Iran’s civilian nuclear enrichment program is inevitably dual use (that it can be used to produce a nuclear weapon) are alarmed at the prospect of a diplomatic deal between Washington and Tehran that will allow Iran to continue enriching under inspections. After ten years, it is rumored, Iran would come to be treated by the UN Security Council like other signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, such as Japan. The more suspicious-minded can’t believe Iran would not take advantage of this situation to produce a nuclear bomb (even though Japan, e.g., has not).
wrote in 2012 that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had given a speech in which he said:
“The Iranian nation has never pursued and will never pursue nuclear weapons. There is no doubt that the decision makers in the countries opposing us know well that Iran is not after nuclear weapons because the Islamic Republic, logically, religiously and theoretically, considers the possession of nuclear weapons a grave sin and believes the proliferation of such weapons is senseless, destructive and dangerous.”
He might be lying, but you can’t ignore that this is publicly stated Iran policy.
Some want to stop the Kerry-Zarif negotiations and ratchet up already severe sanctions on Iran as a way of forcing them to accept a deal even less favorable to themselves.
I wouldn’t assume that the sanctions are very important. Iran’s economy grew 4% in the last two quarters of 2014 and inflation fell to 17% from 40%. Although elements of the middle classes and the state tied to petroleum income have suffered, pistachio farmers and light manufacturers have made out like bandits because of a reverse Dutch disease The reduction of oil exports as a proportion of the country’s international trade has softened the riyal and made Iranian agricultural and manufactured goods more attractive to large Asian markets like India. The sanctions may in fact be doing Iranians a favor, reducing the oil curse.
I underline that the sanctions are bothersome, and maybe even a brake on growth over-all, but their impact is sectorial and not obviously a serious constraint on state action.
Another solution hawks such as former Representative Michele Bachmann put forward is a U.S. bombing raid on Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities at Natanz and Fordow, and if necessary, continued such raids as needed.
What would happen if the US bombed Natanz, Fordow and Arak? (And did that regularly — yearly?– for a decade or two?)
Before I turn to the region, I want to say that my reading of John Mearsheimer’s Tragedy of Great Power Politics is that a scenario of regular air strikes on Iran without slipping into war isn’t plausible politically. Presidents and generals in the US are not there to contain a supposed threat with minimal intervention, they are there to win. Desultory bombing raids that go nowhere are bad for careers. We saw this in Libya, where the initial strategy was a no fly zone, but by August there was enormous public pressure on NATO to show a victory or go home. Moreover, Iran is not Gaza. It is a country nearly as populous as Germany and has among the bigger gross domestic products in the Middle East and an extensive scientific establishment. It wouldn’t want a direct confrontation but it would find ways to take revenge. But revenge would be intolerable to the US Establishment. Bombing Iran leads to war.
As for regional impact, let’s just take Iraq and Afghanistan. To the extent that US policy in those two countries works, it works because it is possible for major ethnic and political groups to be allied uneasily with both the US and Iran. I think a US bombing raid on Iran would destroy that possibility and ‘pitch the question.’
US Iraq policy as it is now constituted would completely fall apart. A US bombing raid on Iran would essentially be a rescue of ISIL in Iraq.
The Shiite militias in Iraq have had an ambiguous relationship with the US. The Badr Corps, an arm of Ammar al-Hakim’s Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq, more or less allied with the US after 2003 against the Baath Sunni cells and budding al-Qaeda/ Islamic State. ISCI and Badr would certainly turn vehemently against the US in the aftermath of such a bombing. Badr has close relations with the IRGC and was once more or less a brigade of it.
Some 3,000 US officers and special ops troops are embedded with the Iraqi army, many of the officers and fighters of which have a Badr background.
So I’d expect significant green on blue attacks and perhaps much worse (suicide bombings at the new command HQ done by insiders).
Muqtada al-Sadr’s Peace Brigades (formerly Mahdi Army) have had a checkered history in recent years. But they are gradually being mobilized against ISIL, despite a pause announced by Sadr in mid-February because Shiite militiamen went wild and killed Sunni leader Qasim al-Janabi. They now want to join the planned Mosul offensive.
The Mosul offensive will require US air support. (With it, the Peshmerga took Sinjar and the YPG defended Kobane. Without it, thousands of Iraqi troops and militiamen are presently stalled outside the small city of Tikrit; the latter may fall, but it didn’t fall easily).
In short, bombing Iran would likely break up the uneasy alliance of convenience that now exists, and probably cause some US troops to be massacred in Baghdad and the rest to have to be withdrawn. The Iraqi army would not get rebuilt, at least not by the US. Baghdad and the south would be decisively pushed into Iran’s arms,.
Without US close air support, the weak Iraqi army and Shiite militias would not likely prevail against a big Sunni city like Mosul (pop. 2 mn. last year this time), even with Iranian help– at least for a long time. ISIL would likely survive in Mosul for years, with deleterious security implications for Europe. It is important that ISIL be dealt some significant defeats sooner rather than later, so as to nip its growing popularity in the bud.
The Hazaras and Tajiks in the Afghanistan officer corps might well choose Iran over the US, with green on blue violence and a forced withdrawal of American troops. Hazaras are Shiites tied to Iran, and Tajiks share a language with Iran and have been close to Tehran politically since the 1990s, as an alternative to Pakistan which they don’t forgive for supporting the Taliban int he 1990s. Hazaras and Tajiks predominate in the current Afghanistan officer corps and in the ranks. Only 2% of the Afghanistan National Army is from the Sunni Pashtun provinces of Helmand and Qandahar. Without the US, however, it is unclear whether the ANA can stand by itself against the neo-Taliban.
Leaving behind a relatively stable Afghanistan, forestalling a second march of Taliban into Kabul, and ousting ISIL from Sunni Iraq and trying to put the country back together are stated US military and foreign policy goals. They are profoundly imperiled by an Iran strike.
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Related video:

48 comments:

  1. US President Barack Obama has criticised a letter from Republican senators to Iran, accusing them of “interfering” in ongoing nuclear talks.

    He said the 47 senators made an “unusual coalition” with Iran's hard-line religious leaders.


    The letter reminds Iran that any deal is just an executive agreement unless it gets congressional approval.

    Talks on Iran's nuclear programme are at a critical stage, with an outline agreement due on 31 March.

    Last week Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Congress the deal currently being negotiated could "pave Iran's path to the bomb".

    Separately, officials confirmed that US Secretary of State John Kerry would meet his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, on Sunday in Switzerland, as part of the process.

    The P5+1 group of major powers - the US, UK, France, Russia and China plus Germany - is seeking to persuade Iran to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for an easing of UN sanctions.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Iran and it's proxies have now successfully killed almost 300,000 Sunnis (including over 10,000 Palestinians), have destroyed the homes and made refugees of over 10 million in JUST Syria. Couple that with the death and destruction Iran has fomented in Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq, I'd say Iran is one lucky nation on the brink of being the Middle East's NEW Superpower! The only real question is WHICH Arab nation is next? This author suspects it will be Jordan.

      By the end of the year, we can all cheer the death toll, when Iran and it's proxies, all without Nuclear Weapons, will achieve almost 500,000 Sunni deaths!

      The West has no right or duty to stop the Mullah's from their justified rampage of terror across the Middle East.

      Delete
    2. .

      Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE and their 'allies' and minions have killed hundreds of thousands in the ME and created millions of refugees.

      But who is counting?

      .

      Delete
  2. The Republican Knesset

    TEHRAN – The Iranian foreign minister on Monday reacted to an open letter to Iran’s leaders by 47 U.S. Republican senators who had warned Tehran that any nuclear deal that the Islamic Republic signs with President Barack Obama’s administration won’t last after Obama leaves office.

    Mohammad Javad Zarif said the letter lacks “legal validity” and shows that the signatories of the letter are “ignorant of international law”

    “In our view this letter has no legal validity and is just a propaganda scheme,” Zarif noted.

    Zarif said it is surprising that while nuclear talks have not reached a result yet pressure groups in the U.S. have become so “worried” that they have resorted to any “unconventional way” to kill it

    The letter proved that “like” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu these senators “are opposed to any deal”.

    Expressing surprise on how it is possible that the legislators of a country write a letter against their own president and government to the leaders of another country, Zarif said, “The letter by the senators show that not only they are alien to international law but even not familiar with the details of the their own constitution about the authority of the president” in implementing foreign agreements.

    Organized by freshman Senator Tom Cotton and signed by the chamber’s entire party leadership as well as potential 2016 presidential contenders Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, the letter is meant not just to discourage Iran from signing a deal but also to pressure the White House into giving Congress some authority over the process.

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    1. ...Organized by freshman Senator Tom Cotton and signed by the chamber’s entire party leadership as well as potential 2016 presidential contenders Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, the letter is meant not just to discourage Iran from signing a deal but also to pressure the White House into giving Congress some authority over the process.

      “It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system … Anything not approved by Congress is a mere executive agreement,” the senators wrote. “The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time.”

      Arms-control advocates and supporters of the negotiations argue that the next president and the next Congress will have a hard time changing or canceling any Iran deal -- -- which is reportedly near done -- especially if it is working reasonably well.

      Zarif, who is a professor of international law, also said, “These senators must know that the U.S. is not equal to the entire world and that international relations is formulated based on international law and international commitments of governments and not based on the United States’ domestic laws.”

      The chief Iranian diplomat added that the senators who have signed the letter may not be fully aware that according to international law governments must “live up to commitments” with other countries and cannot renege on their commitments according to their domestic regulations.

      According to CNN, Democrats, including the White House, also slammed the letter, calling it a purposeful attempt to undermine the delicate negotiations as they reach their first, pivotal deadline later this month.

      Republican Sens. Jeff Flake, Lisa Murkowski, Lamar Alexander, Dan Coats, Thad Cochran, Susan Collins and Bob Corker didn't sign the letter.

      Delete
    2. .

      Cruz is a nutjob and too far right to get elected. Rubio is your typical pol. He'll say anything to get elected. Rand Paul? Well, let's face it. He is no Ron Paul.

      As for the rest of the GOP. Slugs, pissing their pants and scared shitless that Obama will come up with an agreement.

      The idea that politics ends at the shore is quaint. However, I not seen anything as cretinous and subversive as the GOP's letter to Iran.

      .

      Delete

  3. "The Republican Party needs to be destroyed"

    Sounds like you are advocating a 'Civil' War.

    ************

    The last 20 little tweeks to nuclear agreements have been voted on by the Senate.

    Your Napoleon wishes to do this bypassing the Constitution, as is his norm.

    The Senate not only has a right, but a duty to vote on this major treaty.

    All real Americans agree on this.

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    1. I do think this letter was misguided. What they should be do is raising hell here at home and standing on their right and duty to vote on this treaty.

      And don't say it isn't a treaty.

      >>The last 20 little tweeks to nuclear agreements have been voted on by the Senate.<<

      Got that piece of info from a discussion of the issue on Fox News.

      You would do well to give up Juan and go to Greta.

      If the Supreme Court is asked to rule, I predict they would rule for the Senators.

      As I don't see how they could not.

      Delete
    2. Anybody else want to make a contrary legal prediction ?

      Step up now.

      Delete
    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  4. Iran and it's proxies have now successfully killed almost 300,000 Sunnis (including over 10,000 Palestinians), have destroyed the homes and made refugees of over 10 million in JUST Syria. Couple that with the death and destruction Iran has fomented in Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq, I'd say Iran is one lucky nation on the brink of being the Middle East's NEW Superpower! The only real question is WHICH Arab nation is next? This author suspects it will be Jordan.

    By the end of the year, we can all cheer the death toll, when Iran and it's proxies, all without Nuclear Weapons, will achieve almost 500,000 Sunni deaths!

    The West has no right or duty to stop the Mullah's from their justified rampage of terror across the Middle East.






    But what will Israel do?


    It's all Israel's plan...

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    1. The Iranians are fighting for civilization.

      But not fast enough.

      They need nukes, and now, to get the job really done right.

      The Sunnis however don't seem to like the idea with rumors swirling of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and some others teaming up with Israel for some push back.

      It's all the fault of Abraham, who was a psychopath.

      Or something.

      Delete
  5. It is a political party, not a state, not a county, not a school district. This is political grandstanding by an ambitious ex-Army Captain. The Republican Party has morphed from stupid to unhinged.

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    1. They are saying the Senate has a right and duty to vote on a treaty.

      No real American would call this political grandstanding.

      ;)

      In fact, many Democratic Senators agree.

      Delete
    2. There is no treaty. Negotiations are ongoing.

      Delete
  6. The US public is not going to support another optional war in the ME. Iran is not Afghansistan. The ignorance of the potential consequences of a war with Iran during this time is criminal.

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    1. .

      With an agreement, you have the chance that Iran doesn't get a bomb. Without it, short of a massive war, you guarantee they will get it. If they want it, of course.

      .

      Delete
    2. An agreement?

      What does that matter?

      Delete
  7. I didn't really mean to read the last few comments.

    I have adopted a policy of not reading comments, for the most part.

    Just keep the scroll down and blog without interference from rat.

    I am finding I keep up on my e-mail better this way too.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  8. There is only one way to deal with Iran, if you think that Iran is an problem, regime change.

    That has to been without bombing Iran.

    Infect the people of Iran with secular promiscuity, movies, gay rights, women's rights, porn, greed and consumerism..

    The Mullahs don't stand a chance.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. .

      Right, come back in a few decades and let us know how that plan goes.

      .

      Delete
    2. What's your solution?

      Appeasement? Accommodation? Surrender? Live and let live, no matter how many nations or hundreds of thousands are killed?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous wants the Iranians to act like ISraeli.
      secular promiscuity, movies, gay rights, women's rights, porn, greed and consumerism.

      Those social proclivities hijacked Judaism, why not Islam?

      Delete
  9. Fox News is reporting Hillary is going to be coming to the mic and offering 'an innocent explanation' as to why she is breaking protocol, and Federal Law too, by deleting, hiding, etc e-mails on her private e-mail account.

    At the time much of this was done it was then legal to use a private email account. But you had to put everything in the record.

    Will this finally cook her goose ?

    One can only hope.

    Judge Napolitano is speaking on the subject right now.......'she concealed all her documents, a felony.......'

    That statute, he is saying, says the Government, that is us, controls the documents, not Miss Hillary.

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    1. She and Billary were, among others things, making rich from bribes with, to say the least, the 'unsavory'.

      Cook That Goose !

      Cook That Goose !

      Delete
  10. The very worst - so far? - of Dr. Ben Carson:


    Bernard Goldberg
    Another Dopey Remark from Dr. Ben Carson
    Posted: March 9, 2015 in Featured, Political Opinion
    Tags: America is like Nazi Germany, Dr. Ben Carson: Homosexuality is a Choice, ObamaCare is worst thing to happen to America since slaveryl

    21 650 9

    Ben CarsonI am never surprised when stupid people say stupid things but am always fascinated when smart people say stupid things. I have Dr. Ben Carson in mind.

    The other day, when CNN anchor Chris Cuomo asked Carson if he believed homosexuality was a choice, the doctor replied, “Absolutely.”..........


    - See more at: http://bernardgoldberg.com/another-dopey-remark-from-dr-ben-carson/#sthash.XqU3myoF.dpuf


    I have been called a racist, I guess for supporting Dr. Ben.

    Give him a break. He a new one to the game, and has made some 'unfortunate', 'problematical' statements.

    But he's a great man, with a good sense of humor.

    I'm for Ben, but agree with Deuce who has said 'any' Republican over a democrat. Though this was several year ago........

    ReplyDelete
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    1. .

      Give him a break. He a new one to the game, and has made some 'unfortunate', 'problematical' statements.

      Right. He was actually honest in telling people what his positions were.

      .

      Delete
    2. An outlook that has gotten Deuce in a lot or woe.

      Iran is fighting for civilization.

      It's better to dissemble.....and not be thought nuts.

      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

      Objects in Brain May Be Bigger Than They Appear
      Scientists still don't know what causes the mysterious Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, in which people, usually children, suddenly see things change size.
      Robin Tricoles Mar 9 2015, 8:30 AM ET

      Jeremy Thompson/Flickr

      The first time it happened, I was 8. I was tucked in bed reading my favorite book when my tongue swelled up to the size of a cow’s, like the giant tongues I had seen in the glass display case at the neighborhood deli. At the same time, the far wall of my bedroom began to recede, becoming a tiny white rectangle floating somewhere in the distance. In the book I was holding, the typeface grew vast on the page. I was intrigued, I remember, but not afraid. Over the next six years, the same thing happened to me dozens of times.

      Forty years later, while working as a science writer, I stumbled on a scientific paper describing almost exactly what I had experienced. The paper attributed those otherworldly sensations to something called Alice in Wonderland syndrome, or its close cousin, Alice in Wonderland-like syndrome.

      People with Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AWS) perceive parts of their body to be changing size. For example, their feet may suddenly appear smaller and more distant, or their hands larger than they had been moments before. Those with the closely related Alice in Wonderland-like syndrome (AWLS) misperceive the size and distance of objects, seeing them as startlingly larger, smaller, fatter, or thinner than their natural state. People who experience both sensations, like I did, are classified as having AWLS...........

      http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/03/objects-in-brain-may-be-bigger-than-they-appear/387064/



      Objects in mirror are closer than they appear - I hate this. I get it's suppose to be some kind of safety measure but it has almost caused me a couple of accidents.

      Delete
  11. More on The Republican Party:


    Among the formal definitions for “acting the fool” are: one who is deficient in judgment, sense or understanding.
    Perhaps the dictionaries should add a new one: today’s Republican Party.

    February was a great month for those who think the GOP has become a dustbin of ideological extremists with no commitment to actually getting things done in Washington, elected officials easily led into ethically questionable dealings, and office-holding crackpots with bizarre beliefs about some of the most important issues of the day

    For example, in the Congress the GOP leadership has been frantically trying to tamp down House conservatives’ threat to force a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security over President Barack Obama’s executive order on immigration. At the 11th hour, they kicked the can down the road by providing only a week of additional funding.

    On the crime front, Maureen McDonnell, Virginia’s former first lady, drew a lenient sentence of a year and a day in prison for her participation in the tawdry petty corruption scheme that also led to the conviction last year of her husband, former Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell. Once considered a prime contender for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, McDonnell himself had been sentenced in January to two years in prison.

    For comic relief, there was the Idaho Republican state representative who, seemingly confused about the female anatomy, asked a doctor during a legislative hearing whether women could swallow small cameras to help doctors do remote gynecological exams. Even more hilarious was Nevada Republican legislator Michele Fiore expressing her belief that cancer is “a fungus” that can be cured by “flushing, let’s say, saltwater, sodium carbonate” through the body.

    While that comment immediately raced around the Internet, too, many news media felt compelled to note, as the Washington Post did: “Cancer is not a fungus. It is the uncontrolled division of abnormal human cells within the body. Saltwater cannot cure cancer.”
    Not to be outdone back in Washington, Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, the chairman of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, jumped aboard the party comedy train when he brought a snowball into the Senate chamber from the minuscule dusting of snow Washington got that day and said it proved there was no such thing as global warming.

    But a lion’s share of media attention on the GOP for much of the month was, rightly, devoted to former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s claiming that President Obama “doesn’t love America” because he “wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.”

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Then there are the Democrats who all insist that ObamaCare, by making our medical system resemble that of the VA, will improve our health.

      Dr. Ben Carson is, at least, very clear and correct this:

      "ObamaCare is the worst thing to happen to the country since slavery."

      He should have put 'domestically' in there, then it would be hard to disagree.

      The Depression may have taken your job, but the Death Panels will take your life.

      Dale basically got Death Paneled, and Jack too.

      Delete
    2. Then we've recently had that brilliant democratic spokeswoman for our democratically run State Department, hired by John Kerry, who revealed to us that what the ISIS jihadis really need is a USA funded jobs program.

      The competition may be fierce but I do believe the Democrats are the dumber party.

      Evidence exhibit #1 - Rufus voted for 'em.

      Delete
    3. .

      Among the formal definitions for “acting the fool” are: one who is deficient in judgment, sense or understanding.
      Perhaps the dictionaries should add a new one: today’s Republican Party.


      It's a tough one. On the one side you have a bunch of fool dumb ass warmongers and on the other side you have a bunch of dumb ass fools willing to gut the Constitution including your individual rights. Both of them corrupt as hell.

      Scylla and Charybdis

      A rock and a hard place.

      .

      Delete
  12. You might know, and be the one to ask, Quirk.

    Is there any truth to Ben's assertion that men often go to prison straight, and come out gay ?

    I think gayness is such a wide spectrum of behavior that is hard to say whether it is a choice, or not.

    Women seem less hardwired than men, for instance.

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    1. Go to Tel Aviv, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, you will come back 'happy'.
      It is their specialty, you do know?

      "... The gay tourist is a quality tourist, who spends money and sets trends,"
      said Pini Shani, a Tourism Ministry official who has been involved in the campaign.

      "There's also no doubt that a tourist who's had a positive experience here is of PR value. If he leaves satisfied, he becomes an Israeli ambassador of good will."

      You will fit right in, or it will fit right into you, either way, you will become an ISraeli ambassador of goodwill.

      Delete
    2. He just got back from his super secret hush hush project off the coasts of Panama.

      Or maybe from the bowling alley.

      Delete
    3. .

      But what is this?

      This is how one of rat's post was printed out on the last page,

      Jack Hawkins Mon Mar 09, 01:28:00 PM EDT

      Quirk Sat Aug 23, 07:44:00 PM EDT
      .

      What right do the Shiites have to be in Sunni lands?


      Da lobby is getting a bit uppity. Now, they would disperse this group here, move that group over there, determine which group has a 'right' to live in this country or that, all apparently based on sectarian affiliation and whose friend they might be, or to be more exact as to whether they happen to be a friend of Israel's enemies.

      ===========================================

      Unfortunately, It's a bit confusing given the way rat posted it.

      First, there is no context to the Quirk post. Was it Quirk that asked the question, What right do the Shiites have to be in Sunni lands? Actually, no, but it does look that way from the way rat posted it. It is shown as a quote. On the other hand, was it rat that made the comment that starts with Da lobby is getting a bit uppity... You might think so since there were no quotation marks used, nothing italicized but, no, it was Quirk that initially posted the comments.

      Confusing, no. Was the rat intentionally intending to deceive? The only other thing I can think of is that his blogging skills are deficient.

      But how can that be? Wasn't this the same rat that repeatedly lectured WiO and Allen because of their alleged lack of blogging skills? Didn't he emphasize the importance of using quotation marks or italics to identify quotes? Didn't he nag them about using bold for texts to emphasize and clarify? Is rat having trouble with his HTML?

      Naw, couldn't have been the rat's blogging skills. That would be too embarrassing for him after all the petty nitpicking he has done.

      Must be something else.

      .

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  13. If the Republicans drag us into a war with Iran, the permanent state and union of paranoia and surveillance will be complete. The Republicans are so blind, so stupid and so dangerous to anyone that has not been blinded by the victory won by al Qaeda in wrecking US liberties. There is no Republican that has not been corrupted by militarism and state sponsored fear. There is not a free thinker in the entire stinking party. They totally capitulated to Netanyahu and the Israeli view of state surveillance and perma-fear and should be held accountable in the next presidential election.

    Can a Democrat do any better, possibly but the Republican Party hell no.

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    1. Wow. That's pretty damn good. Daffy, but certainly definitive.

      Delete
    2. Perma-fear is excellent.

      Sounds really frosty and cold, like Dante's Hell.

      Delete
  14. We have two countries in the Middle East, Israel and Saudi Arabia, who have been disastrous to the US.

    What has been the results of our obsequious obsession with Israel and the Sauds? 911, Al Qaeda, preemptive invasion of Iraq, Libya, Syria, ISIS and illegal occupations, loss of civil rights and ultimately if the Knesset and their servants in the Republican party prevail, a war with Iran.

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    1. I always say to myself, when voting for my Republican Congressman, Raul, who knows some Spanish, he will master Hebrew soon now, and do well in the Knesset.

      Delete
  15. Finding it hard to get news about Tikrit.

    Last I heard the Iranians were inside the city.

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  17. .

    He just got back from his super secret hush hush project off the coasts of Panama.

    I noticed on the last stream that you offered to cut out the war of words with the rat if he would do the same. Very noble of you. Of course, it might have been better if you had not preceded the offer with an insult. Naturally, rat was willing as long as he got an apology that he knows he has no chance of getting. And so we continue

    I blame you and WiO for this situation. First, WiO was unable to find the post where rat said whatever it was he was supposed to have said, rat denies it, and other than you no one else here remembers it. Strike one. Second, you are the one confirming WiO's charge. However, when you've been drinking you can't remember or interpret what was said a few posts back. Strike two. Third, why in the world would anyone believe a word the rat says. He is an anti-Semitic master-baiter who lies; yet, you guys eat up whatever tripe he feeds you.

    For a couple years now, the rest of us have had to wade through the sick shit you three put out.

    .

    ReplyDelete