Comments on: Syria Calling

By: 99

99 — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 23:29:55 +0000

You know, staunch defender of Hersh as our foremost bodhisattva journalist that I am, I have to stifle my urges to smack him when he does stuff like let quotes of officials in, say, the matter of that egregious mistranslation of Ahmadinejad just stand without correction or commentary. It really irks me badly. And I have to remind myself that he has no choice if he wants to retain access to the people who help him get us real information, remind myself that it’s the officials who need smacking, not Sy.

Hersh is most definitely anti-war with Iran, and pretty much anti-war in general, and it barely would seem so from this piece. I believe he’s trying to tell us that the power structure here isn’t going to change goals, even if it winds up changing its approach to gaining those ends… which, hasn’t been shown by Obama’s deeds thus far, just his endless mouth.

By: Land Day « Ten Percent

Land Day « Ten Percent — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 22:08:32 +0000

[...] Hersh reports some mixed messages from the Obama team- The Obama transition team also helped persuade Israel to end the bombing of Gaza and to withdraw its ground troops [...]

By: Rumple Stiltskin_24

Rumple Stiltskin_24 — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:09:14 +0000

To be honest , this article appears to have fundamental serious flaws.They all eminate from the weak lynchpin of making the article concentric on the prism of the views of Martin Indyck.

Firstly is the assumption , merely commented but never challenged , that Iran wants to wipe Israel off the map.It is taken as a given that this is the only ethos of Iranian foreign policy.

The second is that , for some reason , that a Syrian official explaining to Iran that he intends to cut a bilateral deal with the US would in some way excite an apoplexical crackpot nerve with the Iranians.
Iran themselves would not be averse to a bilateral regional deal with the US and would hardly be surprised if Syria would persue one as well.The weakness of this premise is that Iran are trying to establish an expansionist empire , a classic case of projection being imposed on Iranian designs from hardline zionists.

The other weakness in the article is the premise he seems to buy , without checking the goods , that negiotations with Syria would be a good way to drive a wedge between Israels “enemies”.This may have worked with Fatah , but , as the article implies , the Syrians are hardly likely to proceed with matters without taking a long view regional stability status into account , therefore they are hardly likely to negotiate themselves out of house and home like fatah.

The last weakness is that , somehow , Obama showed his mettle by stopping the Gaza assault.Israel had already lost the heart and mind element of the war long before Jan 20th , and the closure of the campaign is most likely have been made within Israel , using the inauguration as a convenient facesaving excercise.Especially in the view that Israel had their own elections planned for only a week later.