[Peace-discuss] If you read only one thing

[C. G. Estabrook]

The facts of the matter refute the equations that have promoted the co-option of 
the anti-war movement:

	Bush = neocons = war = bad
	Obama = realists = peace = good

The realists are willing to be at least as belligerent as the neocons in their 
prosecution of the SW Asian war. There is at best a tactical difference between 
them, the latter wanting to attack Iran while the former think that the 
dangerous source of opposition to US control of the region is to be found in 
AfPak, so the murders should be concentrated there.

It's clear who's in charge now. --CGE

PS--But note that Clintonoid & Bush Sr. realist Dennis Ross (who's been called 
"neocon-friendly" and a "soft neocon") has just been given the Iran portfolio at 
State. La lotta continua.


David Green wrote:
> Accurate, and clears up some confusion I didn't know I had about the context
> of the resignations of the neocons.
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ---- From: C. G. Estabrook <galliher at uiuc.edu> To:
> David Green <davegreen84 at yahoo.com> Cc: Peace Discuss
> <peace-discuss at anti-war.net> Sent: Thursday, January 8, 2009 12:16:52 AM 
> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] If you read only one thing
> 
> David Green wrote:
>> A historical, detailed passionate summary:
>> 
>> http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/07/gaza-israel-palestine/print
> 
> Absolutely right. But I think Shlaim gets one point wrong, a point that has
> some significance for understanding the factions in the USG. Writing about
> the national unity government formed in the spring of 2007 by Hamas and Fatah
> (after Hamas had won a democratic election in 2006) "that was ready to
> negotiate a long-term ceasefire with Israel" -- Shlaim says
> 
> "...Israel began to encourage the corrupt and pliant Fatah leaders to
> overthrow their religious political rivals and recapture power. Aggressive
> American neoconservatives [sic] participated in the sinister plot to
> instigate a Palestinian civil war. Their meddling was a major factor in the
> collapse of the national unity government and in driving Hamas to seize power
> in Gaza in June 2007 to pre-empt a Fatah coup."
> 
> But David Rose's article ("The Gaza Bombshell," Vanity Fair, April 2008
> <http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/04/gaza200804>) describes
> how
> 
> "the White House [sic] tried to organize the armed overthrow of the Hamas-led
> government after Hamas swept Palestinian elections [in  2006] ... the
> administration boosted military support for rival Palestinian faction Fatah
> in the aim of provoking a Palestinian civil war they thought Hamas would
> lose."
> 
> The point is that this plot was carried out not by neocons but by the
> "realists" in the administration -- and the neocons were outraged, because
> the plot involved arming the Fatah faction, while the neocons insisted that
> all Palestinians of whatever faction should simply be suppressed.  Their
> detestation of the realists' policy led two leading neocons, David Wurmser
> and John Bolton, to become the primary sources for Rose's expose -- revealing
> how marginalized the neocons had become in Bush's second administration.
> (Wurmser resigned as Cheney's Mideast adviser in July 2007.)
> 
> The point is important because the same people who were running US Mideast
> policy in 2007-08 will be running it in 2009-10 -- and not just SecDef Gates.
> The "loss" of Gaza to Hamas was not due to the neocons but to the realists of
> the "permanent government."  --CGE
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________ Peace-discuss mailing list 
> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net 
> http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss