Thursday, January 18, 2007
to be the first to finish and the last to start:
Ah, the joy of waiting for callbacks. It leads to such delicious pleasures, like reading Michael Ledeen play himself:
(W)e have begun to respond to the attacks visited upon American soldiers and civilians by Iran and Syria over nearly 30 years.
Somehow I missed 30 years of Syria trying to kill me and my family, though I think Assad might have been behind the time that kid tried to jack me for my bike when I was 10. Iran took a couple hostages 25 years ago. Let's put the Beirut Marine barracks bombing in their column; I think Ledeen has fingered Iran for the 1995 Saudi Hezbollah attack on U.S. troops; and let's put in some indirect responsibility for attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq. Still, a stickler might suggest that this claim is, you know, cavalier with the truth. It's like if I said, "Michael Ledeen has not paid the price for selling weapons to the Iranian mullahs over nearly 30 years."
--Spencer Ackerman
The Khobar Towers bombing was described as Iranian by Richard Clarke as well, and supposedly the Clinton White House responded by getting every single placed Iranian agent overseas ratted out through a whisper campaign.
Blogger dbt | 11:50 AM

Ledeen also writes:

We all heard Senators Biden and Lugar, Speaker Pelosi and Congressman Murtha demand assurances that we would not cross Iraq’s borders, even in hot pursuit of Iranian and Syrian killers. In other words, it’s quite all right for Iranians, Syrians, and jihadis to invade Iraq and kill Americans, but Americans are not permitted to respond in like manner.

Is it just me or does this really illuminate the Neo-Con's imperialistic intentions? His analogy about invading Iran and Syria as "responding in like manner" only makes sense if you regard Iraq as America. Or at least regard the US military as the sole legitimate sovereign in Iraq. If you break down the situation to two countries each with oppugnant goals operating within Iraq, both with the consent of the elected Iraqi government, shouldn't "responding in a like manner" be killing Iranians and Syrians SOLDIERS within Iraq?

The problem is that Ledeen loves to justify and push for an invasion of Iran, while simultaniously saying that he "does not support an invasion" with Iran. He supports an American-backed Iranian revolution. A proxy-war. Oh and air-strikes. Oh and if you read the above article, an...invasion. He can deny it however he wants, but Ledeen wants war and he wants it badly.
Blogger Eric the Political Hack | 12:42 PM