SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE: Iranian Elections and Funding the Wars
18 June 2009, 20:04, by Jazz.
While I am sympathetic to your general point of view I think you’ll need better documentation to support your assertions. The source you cite in support of your view that the US is funding Iranian unrest is dated February 2007. There is widespread recognition that the Bush administration had secret operations in Iran (such as funding fringe militants as cited here) but we do not have documentation that those ill-conceived operations (reminiscent of our backing jihadists in Afghanistan) were continued under Obama. I would not be shocked if they were continued but documentation to that effect would be powerful. I would hope that Obama is smarter, wiser and more scrupulous than the Bush Neocons.
On the "dimes worth of difference" (a citation of the Counterpunch book?) I am again sympathetic. My hope is that the dime makes a difference and that Obama will eventually prove transformational in the FDR sense. I would be interested in reading Turley’s comments on this point. The hope here is that the Turleys of the world will engage the system as independents or third party candidates — not in the traditional symbolic run for the White House but in a realistic targeted run for congress. (If Ventura can win a governorship, why not Turley for the Senate?)
On AIPAC’s influence in congress, it is a powerful lobby but my own opinion would fall well short of the assertion that congress is subservient. There is a progressive movement in Israel and in the Jewish American community. We need to support them and work toward defeating politicians who place the demands of the Jewish right over the needs of their constituents.
While I am sympathetic to your general point of view I think you’ll need better documentation to support your assertions. The source you cite in support of your view that the US is funding Iranian unrest is dated February 2007. There is widespread recognition that the Bush administration had secret operations in Iran (such as funding fringe militants as cited here) but we do not have documentation that those ill-conceived operations (reminiscent of our backing jihadists in Afghanistan) were continued under Obama. I would not be shocked if they were continued but documentation to that effect would be powerful. I would hope that Obama is smarter, wiser and more scrupulous than the Bush Neocons.
On the "dimes worth of difference" (a citation of the Counterpunch book?) I am again sympathetic. My hope is that the dime makes a difference and that Obama will eventually prove transformational in the FDR sense. I would be interested in reading Turley’s comments on this point. The hope here is that the Turleys of the world will engage the system as independents or third party candidates — not in the traditional symbolic run for the White House but in a realistic targeted run for congress. (If Ventura can win a governorship, why not Turley for the Senate?)
On AIPAC’s influence in congress, it is a powerful lobby but my own opinion would fall well short of the assertion that congress is subservient. There is a progressive movement in Israel and in the Jewish American community. We need to support them and work toward defeating politicians who place the demands of the Jewish right over the needs of their constituents.