Paul Craig Roberts and Iran

Darth Rotor

Salted Sith Cynic
Darth Rotor
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Aug 4, 2006
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While I prefer William Lind's writing, antiwar.com is a host to Paul Craig Roberts and his excited commentary. He's seen first hand the way power brokers work from the top of the pyramid. His Reagan era eagle's eye view informs his worry that America is being led over a cliff by the lead lemmings, the Neocons. I note that Wolfie and Feith have already bailed, Rummy fired, Scooter in hot water, and Perle tries to get below the radar. Only Kristol seeks the heat lamp these days, and I guess he feels safe from his current perch. I imagine there are days that VP Cheney feels as though he is one step away from a bunker in Berlin, metaphorically.

The full article is here.

http://www.antiwar.com/roberts/?articleid=10604

PCR's last line is a bit histrionic, but it is a good set up for the question of the week.
When the American people caught on that the "war on terror" was a cloak for wars of aggression, they put Democrats in control of Congress in order to apply a brake to the regime's warmongering. However, the Democrats have proven to be impotent to stop the neoconservative drive to wider war and, perhaps, world conflagration.

We are witnessing the triumph of a dozen evil men over American democracy and a free press.
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You will note that Mr Roberts does not follow up with a suggested solution. In earlier pieces, he has suggested impeachment of the current administration, but more often than not, all he does is play Cassandra.

He has written off the Democratic Party as impotent. Who is he appealing to in his efforts to correct the course of the national ship heading for shoal water?

The question of the week is, for Paul, and for anyone listening:

If PCR's closing points are valid, ask what Lenin infamously asked: Chto Delat?

What is to be done?

Put another way, to PCR and responders to this clarion call for action, don't come to me with a problem if you aren't also offering a solution, an implementable solution.

I've had to brief generals, admirals, and on a couple of occasions politicos, on courses of action to solve a particular mission problem. You don't brief the boss if you don't have a decent course of action ready for him unless you want to be shredded. Any of you who have presented a dissertation, or a major sales campaign, know what I am referring to.

There are a lot of smart people in this crowd, and I'd like to know: what would you do, and why, and most importantly, why do you think it will work in the short and long term?

PCR may indeed be Cassandra, and his warning may spur people to action before the Greeks descend from the horses' gullet. But spur what action?

What is to be done? Don't bitch about what is wrong, we have plenty of threads and posts filled with that. Sing out with what to do, and tell me why your plan will work.

DR
 
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For decades Israel has been stealing Palestine from the Palestinians such that today there is not enough of Palestine left to comprise an independent country. The US and Israeli governments blame Iran, Iraq, and Syria for aiding and abetting Palestinian resistance to Israel's theft of Palestine.

This guy is an A-Hole.
 
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Craig_Roberts

Therefore, it is a non-controversial fact that the official explanation of the collapse of the WTC buildings is false... Since the damning incontrovertible fact has not been investigated, speculation and “conspiracy theories” have filled the void. :boggled:

To offer a solution to the Middle East crisis, one would certainly have to navigate around this guy's outlook.
 
Thanks for the link DR.

I read through a few of his columns and read the bio that steverino linked to.

I thought that there was a lot of truth in a lot of what he had to say and thought that at least some of the things that he had to say in the column you linked to were worthy of discussion.

Unfortunately, steverino does seem to be correct that Roberts believes in some wacky things about the 9-11 attack. So does the fact that his judgment is bad enough to not only believe some of the wacky 9-11 conspiracy theories but write columns promoting some of those wacky theories eliminate any credibility he might have about some of his other ideas. Not to me, but I guess it does to steverino.
 
steverino and I may or may not agree on many things, but it appears we agree this guy is a woo.
 
As far as DR's main point, hell, I dunno. I'm watching the same thing the woo is, and unfortunately coming to at least some of the same conclusions. I still don't foresee a set of circumstances under which we would invade Iran, but I see many things that appear to be leading up to air strikes. I think that's stupid, and I think the people who are working the game are stupider for thinking anyone will believe it's justified than they are for doing it in the first place. But I don't see a credible way to stop it.

I suspect in my darkest thoughts that the Dems in Congress are staying well back and counting on the idiot to fry himself without them having to do anything risky. Waxman's still doing his thing, too. That makes two avenues with very little in the way of risk that could lead to a set of circumstances under which the US public would demand impeachment in a plurality. What I don't know is whether that's true or not, whatever I may suspect.
 
I am not convinced the guy is a woo or that everything he has to say should be discounted because he has a belief in something which is wildly unlikely to be true.

I realize the use of the word woo is not precise even in the way it is used in the JREF forum but I think if it is used in this way then almost everybody that doesn't have the skeptic's view of the world in total is a woo. That seems like an overly broad definition that would render the word useless.
 
IMO, there is nothing woo about his negative opinion of Israel. I don't like this messenger, and I don't like his message.

I'm not sure where Darth is going with this.
 
Roberts' commentary is shrill, his criticism of the Bush team emotional, and his consistent theme is doom and gloom. He now and again gets his pieces published in the MSM, but his most common forum is, I think, antiwar.com.

I agree with you that he seems to see shadows lurking behind every curtain. He's getting on in years, and I think he's mad that America, as he sees it, is being betrayed by the people he and Reagan and their team saved it for: the next generation.

So, given that his rants are consistent with a lot of Anti Bush screeds one finds in the news and on the web, I took his summary piece, and address what he and a lot of critics don't bother to address: what to do about the policy problems.

Unlike a lot of people who rant and rave about the current administration, Roberts worked on cabinet level national and international problems. That gives him a far better eagle eye view of policy than the average bear. Pat Buchanan is likewise a harsh critic of the Bush team, but his role in Reagan's days was not, IIRC, cabinet level. They both seem to be happy to make political bedfellow arrangements with some curious folks in the paleocon movement, and some downright a-holes. :(

Where I am going is that his call to action is typical of the cry for the past year or two to change policy, but his wrinkle is that both political parties are corrupt and unwilling to act decisively. If PCR is to be taken as modestly credible due to his experience in government at the cabinet level, the hope that the Democrats will untie the Gordian policy knot is vain.

So, who is the Alexander who will untie the not, and what should that party do?

To write Roberts off as a woo is intellectually lazy. To read his outpourings with a grain of salt is well advised, since he's given to emotion and histrionics. I find his Cassandra tone to be irritating , but given his experience at the cabinet level, I check out his stuff for a point of view that isn't in synch with mine, just as I now and again check to see what Chomsky has written.

Opposing and different perspectives are handy. They are also why I don't put people on ignore on this forum. I don't want to put blinders on.

DR
 
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Well, after hearing news clips of Hillary and Obama attending church in the South, it would seem there are fewer and fewer messengers with clarity. Whichever of the two candidates sounds more Jewish when pandering in a synagogue this Passover gets MY vote.:p
 
Darth Rotor said:
Where I am going is that his call to action is typical of the cry for the past year or two to change policy, but his wrinkle is that both political parties are corrupt and unwilling to act decisively. If PCR is to be taken as modestly credible due to his experience in government at the cabinet level, the hope that the Democrats will untie the Gordian policy knot is vain.

So, who is the Alexander who will untie the not, and what should that party do?
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Who was it that first coined the axiom "Republicans are the party of bad ideas, Democrats are the party of no ideas"... it seems apt.

To my limited experience, the problem seems all but insoluble.

Stay the course -- America has spoken with their votes in the 2006 general. They will not accept casualties on the gamble that by playing midwife to a painful birth of Democracy in the Middle East that we can change the hearts and minds of the Muslim population.

Fortress America -- Sit back and do everything possible to minimize exposure to another domestic terrorist attack. Without the fortitude to seal our porous borders, IMO it is only a matter of time before AQ or a like-minded organization will exploit our security holes.

Capitulate -- Is this really an option? If the world turned it's back on Israel, would the threat of radical Islam diminish? Is it all (as some would assert) just about Israel?

It seems there is only one option left.

Brush up on your dhimmitude.
 
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