Hi Nadine Carroll; Re: "I see no sign of coalition building." That's why you can be sure we're not going into Iraq.
Re: "Your press clippings are old ..." That's because an attack on Iraq is no longer being threatened. The administration is playing it down for a reason: it's not going to happen. The clippings I gave were the latest that the searches I made (for example mentioning Russia, Iraq and Saddam, or Turkey, Iraq, and Saddam). An attack on Iraq is last year's news.
Re: "... and besides, none of Iraq's neighbors are going to say anything in favor of our going in before we have publically committed ourselves to do so." The problem is that Iraq's neigbors have already publicly committed themselves against our going in. The administration put up the trial balloon late last year, it got shot down, and now it's a dead issue.
Re: "Who will stop us going after Saddam or militant Islam?" This is a silly question. If we wanted to go after Saddam we could, but the fact is that we don't have overwhelming reasons to do so, and we have plenty of reasons to not. Israel's security is not of our concern. Iraq is a direct military threat to the local nations, not to the US. If the locals aren't willing to fight, the US just isn't going to get involved. And anyway, Iraq is not a militant Islamic regime.
You may as well hope for us to attack North Korea or China. It just ain't gonna happen, except possibly for some air sorties, but those have been going on for years.
Re: "Have a look at the official pronouncements of our good buddies in Saudi Arabia:" Your link is from "memri.org", and we all know where they are coming from. If anyone doesn't know here's the facts:
MEMRI About the Institute: Mission Statement
About Us, MEMRI website, as of January 16, 2002
The Middle East Media and Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit organization. MEMRI was established in February 1998 to study and analyze intellectual developments and politics in the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli conflict, with a particular emphasis on its Israeli-Palestinian dimension. In its research, MEMRI is dedicated to the proposition that the values of liberal democracy, civil society, and the free market are relevant to the Middle East and to United States foreign policy towards the region.
...
memri.org
Registrant:
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI4-DOM)
PO Box 27837
Washington, DC 20038
US
Domain Name: MEMRI.ORG
Administrative Contact, Billing Contact:
Carmon, Yigal (KKXUZJGRJI) memri@MEMRI.ORG
The Middle East Media Research Institute
PO Box 27837
Washington, DC 20038
US
...
netsol.com
Yigal Carmon
Yigal Carmon is an expert on terrorism and was an advisor to Prime Ministers Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin.
freeman.org
It simply is not in the US' best interests to adopt a foreign policy dictated by Israel. Even if they're pretending to be "non-partisan".
So there it is. It appears that an Israeli terror expert is running a web site devoted to causing problems with the US' relations with Arabs. Now do you understand why those of us who have already been assimilated by the "Borg" (i.e. US melting pot) don't trust new immigrants to tell us the truth about their homelands? According to Nadine Carroll, the Israelis have never done anything wrong. If this is true they must surely be God's people, but even given this, it's not obvious to me that letting Israel set our foreign policy is a good idea. I don't trust you.
-- Carl |
